•i^^^V^■l■:M,•■■.,:''^:  -;    •■: 


\ 


ci?6-:] 


A:^  \       ^J  V  C^:^v.  ^ri 


) 


LIFE, 


LETTERS,    AND   JOURITALS 


OF 


GEORGE   TICKlt^OR. 


VOL.  II. 


SIXTH    EDITION. 


bosto:n': 

JAMES  E.  OSGOOD  AND  COMPANY, 

Late  Tick^or  &  Fields,  and  Fields,  Osgood,  &  Co. 

1877. 


5  0 '/  0 :3 

Copyright,  1876. 
By  anna  TICKNOR. 


University  Press  :  Welch,  Bigelow,  &  Co., 
Cambridge. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   11. 


CHAPTER    I. 
Vienna.  —  Prince  Metternich  , 1 

CHAPTER    II. 

From  Vienna  to  Florence.  —  Austrian  Monasteries.  —  Austrian  and 
Bavarian  Alps.  —  Munich.  —  Lausanne.  —  Geneva.  —  Tui'in.  — 
General  Laharpe.  —  Count  Balbo.  —  Pellico.  —  Manzoni        .         .      21 

CHAPTER    III. 

Florence.  —  Niccolini.  —  Madame  Lenzoni.  —  Grand  Duke.  —  Micali. 
—  Alberti  Manuscripts  of  Tasso.  —  Gino  Capponi.  —  Italian  Soci- 
ety. —  Rome.  —  Bunsen.  —  Thorwaldsen.  —  Princess  Gabrielli.  — 
Borgliese  Family.  —  Cardinal  Fesch.  —  English  Society.  —  Princess 
Massimo.  —  Archseological  Lectures 48 


•'O" 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Rome.  —  Dante  and  Papal  Government,  —  Taking  the  Veil  in  High 
Life.  —  Kestner  and  Goethe.  —  Cardinal  Giustiniani.  —  Letter  to 
Mr.  Dana.  —  Francis  Hare.  —  Sismondi.  —  Mezzofanti.  —  Alberti 
Manuscripts.  —  Lady  Westmoreland.  —  Mai.  —  Vatican  Library. 

—  "Wordsworth  and  H.  C.  Robinson 67 

CHAPTER    V. 

Florence.  —  Pisa.  —  Lucca.  —  Milan.  —  Venice.  —  Passes  of  the  Alps. 

—  "Wordsworth.  —  Heidelberg 87 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Paris.  —  Von  Raumer.  —  Fauriel.  —  Duke  and  Duchess  de  Broglie. 

—  Guizot.  —  Miss  Clarke,  —  Coquerel.  —  Jouy.  —  Confalonieri.  — 
Count  Mole.  —  Augustin  Thierry.  —  Lamartine.  —  Count  Circourt. 

—  Mignet.  —  Cesare  Balbo.  —  Mad.  de  Pastoret.  —  Louis  Philippe 

and  his  Family 102 


iv  CONTEXTS. 


CHAPTER    VII.  j 

Thieny.  —  Duchess  de  Eauzan.  —  Bastard's  "Work  on  Painting  in  ' 

the  Dark  Ages.  —  Montalembert.  —  Mad.  Miirat.  —  Mad.  Amable  ! 

...  J 

Tastii.  —  Princess  Belgiojoso.  —  Thiers.  —  Debate  in  the  Chamber  ! 

of    Peers.  —  Chateaubriand.  —  Politics.  —  Farewells.  —  General  ] 

View  of  Society,  etc 124 


CHAPTER    VIII.  I 

London.  —  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge.  —  Hallam.  —  Elizabeth  Barrett.  ■ 

—  Lockhart .  —  Jeffrey.  —  Sir  Edmund  Head.  —  Story  of  Canning. 

—  Story  of  the  Duke  of  Sussex.  —  Milman.  —  Elphinstone.  —  Cam- 
bridge. —  AVhewell.  —  Sedgwick.  —  Smyth.  — Journey  North      .     14-4  ' 

CHAPTER    IX. 

Abbotsford.  —  Edinburgh.  —  Maxwells  of  Terregles.  —  "Wordsworth 
and  Southey.  —  Manchester.  —  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Greg.  —  Oxford.  — 
Althorp.  —  London.  —  Eeturn  to  America 160  i 

CHAPTER    X. 

Arrival  at  Home.  —  Letters  to  Miss  Edgeworth,  Mr.  Legare,  Prince 

John  of  Saxony,  Count  Circourt,  Mr.  Prescott,  Mi:,  Kenj'on,  and  i 

others.  —  Death  of  Mr.  Legare 184  ! 

I 
I 

I 

CHAPTER    XI.  i 

i 
Lettere  to  Mr.  Lyell,  Miss  Edgeworth,  IMr.  Kenyon,  G.  T.  Curtis,  J 

C.  S.  Daveis,  Prince  John  of  Saxony,  G.  S,  Hillard,  and  Horatio  j 

Greeuough.  —  Summers  at  Geneseo,  N.  Y. ;  Manchester,  on  Massa-  - 

chusetts  Bay.  —  Journeys  in  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New  Hamp- 
shire, etc.  —  Passing  Public  Events.  —  Slavery  and  Piepudiation. 

—  Prison  Discipline.  —  Revolutions  of  1848.  — Astor  Place  liiots       215 


CHAPTER    XII. 


(( 


History  of  Spanish  Literature."  —  Long  Preparation.  —  Purpose  of 
interesting  the  general  Reader.  —  Correspondence  with  "Washington 
Irving,  Don  Pascual  de  Gayangos,  and  Dr.  Julius.  —  Growth  of  his 
Spanish  Libi-aiy.  —  Manuscript  of  the  "Work  submitted  to  Mr. 
Prescott.  —  Publication  in  New  York  and  London,  in  1849.  — 
Reviews,  etc.  —  Letters  from  J.  L.  Motley,  H.  Hallam,  and  Tieck. 
—  Translations.  —  Third  and  Fourth  Editions        ....     243 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Visit  to  Washington.  —  Letters  to  ]\Ir.  ]\Iilmaii,  Prince  John  of  Sax- 
ony, Sir  E.  Head,  Sir  C.  Lyell,  F.  Wolf,  D.  Webster,  E.  Everett, 
G.  T.  Curtis,  and  C.  S.  Daveis.  —  New  Books.  —  Passing  Events. 

—  Spanish  Literary  Subjects.  —  Slavery.  —  International  Copyright    263 

CHAPTER    XIY. 

Letters.  —  Death  of  Mr.  Webster.  —  Crimean  War.  —  Letters  to  C.  S. 
Daveis,  E.  Everett,  Sir  E.  Head,  King  John  of  Saxony,  Sir  C. 
Lyell .283 

CHAPTER    XV. 

Boston  Public  Library.  —  Its  History  and  Mr.  Ticknor's  Connection 
with  it.  —  His  great  Purpose  to  make  it  a  Free  Libraiy.  —  His 
Perseverance  on  this  Point.  —  His  Labors.  —  Popular  Division  first 
provided,  —  Mr,  Ticknor's  Visit  to  Europe  for  the  Interests  of  the 
Library,  —  Subsequent  Attention  and  personal  Liberality  to  the 
higher  Departments  of  the  Collection 299 

CHAPTER    XVI. 

Visit  to  Europe  for  the  Affairs  of  the  Boston  Public  Library.  —  Lon- 
don,  Brussels,  Dresden,  Berlin,  and  Vienna.  — •  Verona,  —  Milan. 

—  Letters  to  Mr.  Prescott,  Mr.  Everett,  Mr.  and  Mrs,  W.  S.  Dex- 
ter, and  Mrs.  Ticknor 321 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

Italy.  —  Winter  in  Eome.  —  Florence,  Turin,  Paris.  —  Letters  to  Mr. 
Prescott,  Count  Circourt,  and  W.  W.  Greenough  .         .         .         .338 

CHAPTER    XVIII. 

London.  —  Letters  to  Mrs.  Ticknor.  —  Harrow.  —  British  IMuseum 
Eeading-Ptoom.  —  Anecdote  of  Scott.  —  W.  R.  Greg.  —  Tocque- 
ville.  —  ]\Iacaulay.  —  Wilson.  —  Spanish  Studies.  —  Letter  to  Mr. 
Prescott.  —  Due  dAumale 357 

CHAPTER    XIX. 

Letters  to  Mrs.  Ticknor.  —  Visits  in  the  Country.  —  Isle  of  Wight. 

—  Shorehara.  —  Chevening.  —  Stoke  Park.  —  Walton-on-Thames. 


vi  CONTENTS. 

—  Bolton  Percy.  —  Wentworth.  House.  —  "Wallington.  —  Alder- 
sham  Park.  —  jMalvem.  —  Ellerbeck.  —  Manchester  Exhibition.  — 
LiverpooL — Departui'e  for  America 376 

CHAPTER    XX. 

Letters,  1857  -  59,  to  Judge  Curtis,  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Sir  C.  Lyell, 
Mr.  E.  H.  Gardiner.  —  Letter  from  Baron  Humboldt.  —  Letters  to 
Mr.  Everett,  Hon.  E.  Twisleton,  Sir  W.  C.  Trevelyan  .         .         .401 

CHAPTER    XXI. 

Letters,  1859  -  61,  to  Sir  C.  Lyell,  Hon.  E.  Everett,  Sir  E.  Head, 
C.  S.  Daveis 422 

CHAPTER    XXII. 
1859  to  1864.  — Life  of  Prescott.—Civn  War  .        .        .        .436 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 

1863  to  1866.  —  Letters  to  G.  T.  Curtis,  Sir  C.  Lyell,  Sir  E.  Head, 
R.H.  Gardiner,  Friend  B.  B.  Wiffen,  General  Thayer,  C.  F.  Brad- 
ford, Professor  Louis  Agassiz,  and  Lady  Cranworth.  —  Death  of 
Mr.  Everett 457 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 

1867  to  1870.  —Letters  to  Sir.  E.  Head,  Mr.  Twisleton,  Sir  Walter 
Trevelyan,  the  King  of  Saxony,  G.  T.  Curtis,  General  Thayer        .     476 

CHAPTER    XXY. 
Conclusion 492 


APPENDIX. 

Extracts  from  the  Letters  of  jMr.  Elisha  Ticknor  to  his  Son  George, 

during  his  Absence  in  Europe,  1815-1819 499 

Eeviews  and  ^Minor  AVritings         .......  507 

Literary  Honors 607 

Bequest  to  Boston  Public  Library 608 

Index 611 


LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOE. 


CHAPTEE    I. 

Vienna.  —  Prince  Metternich. 

JOURNAL. 

Vienna,  June  20,  1836.  —  This  forenoon  I  did  nothing  but  drive 
about  the  city  and  make  a  few  visits  ;  one  to  Kenyon,  the  brother  of 
my  old  friend  in  London,  who  has  lived  here  many  years,  and  who 
seems  to  have  the  same  spirit  of  kindness  which  I  found  so  pleasant 
and  useful  in  England  ;  another  to  Baron  Lerchenfeld,  the  Bavarian 
Minister,  a  very  courteous  person  ;  one  to  Dr.  Jarcke,  one  of  the  per- 
sons most  confidentially  employed  by  Metternich  ;  and  several  others 
whom  I  did  not  find  at  home,  among  them  the  British  Minister,  Sir 
Frederick  Lamb,  who,  I  am  sorry  to  learn,  is  absent,  and  not  likely 
to  return  while  I  am  here.  In  doing  this  I  drove  a  good  deal  about 
the  city,  and  was  surprised  to  find  how  clean  it  is,  how  rich,  solid, 
substantial,  and  even  fresh,  everything  looks.  Pavement  can  hardly 
be  better  than  it  is  made  in  the  streets  here,  the  whole  being  of 
hewn,  square  blocks  of  granite,  almost  as  nicely  fitted  to  each  other 
as  if  the  work  were  masonry  ;  but  there  are  no  trottoirs,  so  that, 
though  everybody  walks  cleanly  and  comfortably,  nobody  is  protected 
against  the  carriages 

In  the  afternoon  we  drove  out  to  the  Prater,  —  the  famous  Prater. 
It  is  a  great  public  garden  and  drive,  intersected  with  many  pleasant 
walks  and  roads,  ornamented  with  fine  old  trees,  and  parts  of  it  en- 
livened with  large  numbers  of  deer,  while  other  parts  are  rendered 
still  more  lively  with  coffee-houses,   puppet-shows,   and   shows  of 

animals But  we  enjoyed  very  much  the  drive  into  the  more 

picturesque  parts,  where  the  deer  were  browsing  undisturbed,  and 
oaks  a  thousand  years  old  cast  their  shade  upon  us,  as  they  had,  per- 
chance, in  their  youth  upon  the  Court  of  Charlemagne.     In  some 

VOL.    II.  1  A 


2  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1836. 

places  they  were  making  hay,  in  others  there  were  preserves  of  wild 
birds  ;  and,  though  it  is  nowhere  more  beautiful  and  nowhere  so  well 
kept  as  the  Grosse  Garten,  near  Dresden,  it  is,  by  its  extent,  much 
grander  and  finer 

June  23.  —  In  the  evening  we  drove  out  to  Mr.  Yon  Hammer's,  at 
Dobling,"^  where  he  has  a  country-house  about  four  or  five  English 
miles  from  Vienna.  I  had  a  letter  to  him,  and  he  came  to  see  me 
the  other  day  ;  a  veiy  lively,  prompt,  frank  gentleman,  of  sixty-two 
years,  talking  English  very  well,  French  and  Italian,  but  famous,  as 
everybody  knows,  for  his  knowledge  of  Oriental  languages,  and  for 
his  great  works  on  Eastern  literature  and  Turkish  history. 

Every  Thursday  evening  ....  he  receives  at  his  house,  uncere- 
moniously, the  principal  men  of  letters  of  the  city,  whose  acknowl- 
edged head  he  is,  and  most  of  the  strangers  of  note  who  visit  it.  He 
asked  us  to  come  early,  in  order  to  enjoy  a  fine  view  of  the  city  by 

sunset  from  behind  his  house  and  garden On  our  return  from 

the  walk  we  found  a  considerable  party,  perhaps  thirty  persons. 
Mrs.  Yon  Hammer  and  her  daughter  presided  at  the  tea-tables  in 

the  court,  al  fresco Everything  was  very  simply  done.     The 

garden  is  not  pretty,  and  the  house  is  not  very  spacious,  but  three 
parlors  and  the  court-yard  were  lighted  ;  tea,  fruit,  ices,  and  refresh- 
ments were  handed  round,  ....  and  there  was  much  pleasant  talk 
in  English,  French,  Italian,  and  German.  The  persons  to  whom  I 
talked  with  most  pleasure  were  Kaltenbaeck,  the  editor  of  the  "  Aus- 
trian Periodical  for  History  and  Statistics "  ;  Wolf,  one  of  the  libra- 
rians of  the  Imperial  Library  ;  f  and  Count  Auersperg,  a  gentleman  of 
an  old  Austrian  family,  who  has  distinguished  himself  as  a  poet,  and 
got  into  trouble  lately  as  a  liberal  poet.  It  was  such  a  sort  of  conver- 
sazione in  the  open  air  as  belongs  rather  to  Italy  than  to  Germany  ;  it 
was  all  over  before  ten  o'clock 

June  24.  —  After  a  visit  to  Baron  Lerchenfeld,  this  morning,  I 
passed  two  or  three  hours  in  the  Imperial  Library,  with  "Wolf,  in 
looking  over  ....  the  old  Spanish  books.  He  is  a  great  amateur 
in  this  department,  and  I  found  much  to  interest  and  occupy  me, 
though  almost  nothing  of  value  that  was  quite  new.  The  most 
curious  parts  were  out  of  the  collection  of  an  old  archbishop  of  the 
Yalencia  family,  of  the  house  of  Cordova. 

When  I  had  finished  this,  ....  I  went  to  see  Prince  Metternich. 

*  Baron  von  Hammer-Purgstall. 

t  Ferdinand  Wolf,  learned  in  Spanish  literature,  became  one  of  Mr.  Ticknor's 
literary  correspondents. 


^.44.]  PRINCE  METTERNICII. 


I  brou^'lit  a  letter  to  him  from  Baron  Humboldt  ;  but  when  I  anived 
he  was  in  Hungary,  from  whence  he  returned  yesterday.  This  morn- 
ing I  received  a  note  from  him,  saying  he  would  be  glad  to  see  me  at 
the  Chancery  between  two  and  three  o'clock.  I  went,  and  found  it 
an  enormous  building,  or  rather  pile  of  buildings,  containing  not  only 
offices,  but  dwellings  for  a  large  number  of  the  officers  in  his  depart- 
ment, among  the  rest  the  offices  of  Jarcke  and  Von  Hammer. 

Over  the  portal  is  a  Latin  inscription,  calling  it  —  I  know  not 
why  —  a  "  Pra)torium,"  and  signifying  that  it  received  its  present 
external  form  and  arrangement  from  Prince  Kaunitz,  who  so  long 
held  the  place  now  held  by  the  more  powerful  Metternich.  I  passed 
up  by  a  fine  staircase,  and  going  through  an  antechamber  with  three 
or  four  servants  in  it,  and  another  where  was  a  doorkeeper  with  two 
persons  who  looked  as  if  they  were  something  a  little  more,  I  was 
shown  into  a  third  large  room,  where  four  persons  were  waiting  to 
have  the  great  man  accessible,  a  number  which  was  speedily  increased 
to  seven.  I  sat  down  to  wait  with  them,  and  waited,  I  suppose, 
twenty  minutes.  Meanwhile,  secretaries  came  out  Avith  papers  in 
their  hands,  as  if  they  had  been  carried  in  for  signature  ;  two  of  the 
ministers  came  and  went  ;  and  everything  had  the  air  of  a  premier's 
antechamber,  those  who  were  present  talking  together  only  in  whis- 
pers, if  they  talked  at  all,  and  even  the  servants,  further  out,  not 
speaking  above  their  breath.     I  knew  nobody,  and  said  nothing. 

At  last  the  four  who  were  there  when  I  arrived  were  admitted  ; 
they  were,  as  I  understood  afterwards,  a  deputation  from  Milan  on 
affairs  of  state,  but  they  were  soon  despatched.  My  turn  came  next, 
and,  as  soon  as  I  had  passed  a  double  door,  I  found  myself  in  a  large 
and  handsome  library,  across  which  the  Prince  was  advancing  to  meet 
me.  He  received  me  very  kindly,  but  with  much  dignity,  and  lead- 
ing me  at  once  through  the  library,  carried  me  into  his  cabinet, 
another  very  large  room,  with  books  in  different  parts  of  it,  tables 
covered  with  papers,  pictures  on  the  walls,  and  much  massive  furni- 
ture, the  whole  looking  very  rich  and  comfortable.  He  seated  me 
in  an  easy-chair  on  one  side  of  a  small  table,  which  still  had  some 
of  the  morning's  work  upon  it,  and  placed  himself  in  a  smaller  chair 
on  the  opposite  side,  evidently  his  accustomed  seat  and  his  wonted 


arrangement. 


When  we  were  both  seated,  he  fastened  his  eyes  upon  me,  and 
hardly  took  them  off  for  an  instant  while  I  remained.  He  asked  me 
how  I  had  left  M,  de  Humboldt,  said  that  M.  de  Humboldt  spoke 
of  me  as  an  old  friend,  but  that  he  thought  he  had  the  advantage 


LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 


of  me  there,  as  he  had  known  M.  de  Humboldt  for  three-and-thirty 
years,  which  by  my  looks  could  hardly  be  my  case,  etc.,  etc.  He 
then  inquired  by  what  road  I  had  come  to  Vienna,  and  on  my  telling 
him  that  it  was  by  way  of  Prague,  he  did  what  everybody  had  told 
me  he  would  do,  took  a  subject  and  talked  consecutively  about  it. 
The  subject  he  chose  was  Bohemia.  He  said  no  part  of  Europe  had 
gained  more  in  the  course  of  the  last  twenty  years  than  Bohemia  ; 
that  crood  roads  had  been  built  all  over  the  country,  the  comfort  of 
the  villages  improved,  trades  and  manufactures  more  than  doubled, 
the  condition  of  the  peasantry  ameliorated,  and  the  great  landlords, 
if  not  always  made  richer,  yet  living  much  more  as  becomes  their 
position  in  society. 

He  said  he  had  a  large  estate  in  Bohemia  himself,  and  showed  me 
how  he  had  found  it  for  his  personal  interest  to  build  a  road,  which 
cost  him  seventy  thousand  Spanish  dollars,  merely  to  open  a  market 
for  his  woods,  the  money  he  had  expended  bemg  thus  put  out  at 
an  interest  of  eight  per  cent. 

Four  different  roads,  he  said,  now  come  from  Prague  to  Vienna, 
all  good,  whereas  twenty  years  ago  there  was  but  one  poor  one  ; 
while  also  the  value  of  property  in  Bohemia,  generally,  is  so  much 
increased  that  the  goA^emment  is  constantly  obliged  to  refuse  offers 
of  individuals  to  build  roads  at  their  o\\ti  expense,  if  the  state  will 
afterwards  maintam  them.  In  this  way  he  talked  on,  a  little  formally, 
but  very  sensibly  and  clearly,  until  I  began  to  think  the  people  wait- 
ing in  the  antechamber  would  wish  me  anywhere  else,  and  seizing 
the  first  opportunity  I  rose.  He  did  not  offer  to  detain  me,  but  in- 
viting me  to  come  and  see  him  at  Schonbrunn,  any  evening  and  every 
evening,  while  I  should  be  in  Vienna,  he  accompanied  me  through 
the  library  to  the  antechamber,  and  there  took  leave  of  me  with 
much  grace  of  manner. 

Prince  Metternich  is  now  just  sixty-three  years  old,  a  little  above 
the  middle  height,  well  preserved  in  all  respects,  and  rather  stout, 
but  not  corpulent,  %vith  a  good  and  genuinely  German  face,  light  blue 

eyes  that  are  not  very  expressive,  and  a  fine  Roman  nose His 

hair  is  nearly  white,  and  his  whole  appearance,  especially  when  he 
moves,  is  dignified  and  imposing  ;  but  his  whole  manner  is  winning. 

His  conversation  left  no  other  impression  upon  me  than  that  his 
mind  must  be  full  of  matter-of-fact  knowledge,  well  arranged  and 
ready  to  be  produced.  A^Tiatever  he  said  was  clear  and  pertinent, 
and  well  and  concisely  said. 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  hear  music  at  two  widely  different 


M.  44.]  JEWISH  SYNAGOGUE. 


places.  The  first  was  the  Synagogue  of  the  German  Jews,  where 
service  commences  on  Friday  evening,  on  the  first  appearance  of  the 
evening  star  for  the  Sabbath,  for  it  is  "  the  evening  and  the  morn- 
ing" that  make  their  holy  day.  Their  temple  outside  cannot  be  dis- 
thiguished  from  any  other  building  ;  within  it  had  very  crowded 
seats  on  the  lower  fioor,  filled  with  men  who  wore  their  hats  ;  a  rather 
neat  gallery  supported  by  Ionic  pillars  and  closed  by  a  gilded  lattice 
for  the  women  ;  and  an  enclosure  something  like  a  chancel  for  the 
priest  and  choir,  who  stood  with  theii"  backs  to  the  audience.  A 
table  was  before  them,  and  above  the  table  a  large  black  velvet  hang- 
ing covered  with  Hebrew  inscriptions,  towards  which  the  faces  of  the 
priest  and  assembly  were  alike  turned.  The  room  was  an  oval,  and, 
on  the  whole,  of  good  architecture.  All  the  congregation  had  Hebrew 
Tbooks  in  their  hands  ;  the  priest,  dressed  in  black  robes  and  a  black 
cap,  sang  in  Hebrew,  and  had  one  of  the  finest  and  richest  voices  I 
ever  heard,  which  poured  forth,  the  Hebrew  vowels  in  the  grandest 
melody,  to  which  the  choir  and  congregation  responded. 

There  was  something  very  picturesque  in  the  whole,  though,  of 
course,  everything  was  unintelligible  to  us.  After  listening  to  it, 
therefore,  a  little  while,  we  drove  to  a  public  garden  in  one  of  the 
suburbs,  where  Strauss  —  whose  waltzes  are  danced  alike  in  Calcutta, 
Boston,  and  Vienna  —  inlays  two  evenings  in  the  week,  to  the  great 
delight  of  the  multitudes  who  go  to  hear  him  and  his  perfectly 
drilled  band.  It  was  a  beautifully  warm,  still,  moonlight  evening  ; 
and  when  we  reached  the  garden,  which  was  brilliantly  lighted,  we 
found  about  four  hundred  people,  chiefly  seated  at  small  tables  under 
the  trees,  taking  supper  or  some  other  refreshment,  and  listening  to 
the  music.  It  was  extremely  pretty,  and  the  whole  had  a  fanciful, 
fairy-like  look. 

June  26.  — .  .  .  .  I  went  to  see  Jarcke,  and  had  some  quite  inter- 
esting conversation  with  him.  He  is,  I  find,  a  very  important  per- 
son here,  filling  the  place  that  was  formerly  filled  by  the  famous 
Gentz,  and  is,  therefore,  since  the  death  of  that  distinguished  person, 
a  sort  of  right-hand  man  to  Metternich.  He  is,  however,  a  Prussian 
hy  birth,  and  was  for  some  years  Professor  of  History  at  Berlin  ;  but 
he  became  a  Catholic,  and  that  rendered  him  a  little  uncomfortable 
at  home  and  very  valuable  here,  so  he  was  brought,  nothing  loath, 
and  established  in  Metternich's  Chancery  with  a  great  salary.  He 
denies  being  an  absolutist  in  politics,  and  founds  much  of  his  govern- 
mental doctrine  upon  the  sacred  preservation  of  prop>erty  and  its 
rights  ;  is  very  hard  upon  Von  Raumer  ;  thinks  the  English  Ministry 


6  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

are  ruining  everything  by  attacking  the  Irish  Church  incomes,  etc., 
etc 

At  half  past  nine  in  the  evening  I  drove  out  with  Baron  Lerchen- 
feld,  th.e  Bavarian  Minister,  to  Schonbrunn,  to  see  Prince  Metternich. 
....  Just  at  ten  o'clock  we  ascended  the  little  bank  of  the  dry 
Wien,  and  from  its  bridge  looked  down  upon  the  wide  palace  of 
Schonbrunn,  lighted  brilliantly  in  all  its  apartments,  as  not  only  the 
Emperor  is  there,  but  the  King  of  Naples  and  Marie  Louise  are  on 
a  visit  to  him.  A  moment  afterwards  we  dashed  through  its  court, 
and,  passing  round  to  the  other  side  of  the  garden,  stopped  at  the  door 
of  the  Premier,  who  lives  in  a  fine  large  house  given  to  him  by  the 

late  Emperor There  was  no  show  of  servants  and  liveries  on 

the  stairs,  and  very  little  in  the  hall. 

In  a  corner  of  the  large  outer  saloon  Ave  found  the  Prince,  talking, 
apparently  on  business,  to  somebody.  He  rose  to  receive  us,  said  a 
few  words  of  graceful  compliment,  and  then  asked  the  Bavarian  to 
take  me  into  the  inner  saloon  and  present  me  to  the  Princess.  She 
was  sitting  in  an  easy-chair,  dressed  simply  in  half-mourning,  and  at 
work  dilidfently  on  what  I  believe  the  ladies  call  "  rufr-work."  She 
is  rather  pretty,  thirty-one  years  old,  and  the  Prince's  third  wife  ;  but 
she  seemed  sad,  and  obviously  plied  her  needle  for  occupation.  Her 
reception  of  me  was  not  at  all  courtly,  but  very  kind.  She  said  her 
husband  had  told  her  I  was  coming,  and  that  she  bad  expected  me 
both  the  preceding  evenings  ;  asked  me  about  Boston,  the  United 
States,  etc.,  etc.  ;  said  she  did  not  like  liberals  in  Europe,  but  that  it 
was  another  thing  in  America,  where  the  government  was  democratic, 
and  it  was  a  man's  duty  to  be  liberal ;  and  so  on,  and  so  on.  Other 
persons  came  in,  and  I  was  presented  to  the  Minister  at  War,  Count 
Hardegg  ;  the  IMinister  of  Police  ;  Bodenhausen,  the  Minister  from 
Hanover  ;  Steuber,  the  Minister  from  Hesse  Cassel ;  and  some  others 
whose  names  I  did  not  catch. 

I  foimd  there,  too.  Count  Bombelles,  whom  I  had  known  in  1818, 
as  Austrian  Charge  d' Affaires  at  Lisbon,"'^  and  who  is  now  a  great  man 
in  a  very  agreeable  office  here,  that  of  governor  of  the  young  arch- 
dukes, who  are  the  heirs  presumptive,  as  the  Emperor  has  no  chil- 
dren ;  a  sinecure  office  thus  far,  since  the  eldest  is  not  seven  years 
old.  He  has  married  an  English  wife,  talks  English  admirably,  and 
was  very  agreeable.  There  were  no  ladies  present  except  a  Russian 
princess  and  her  daughter.  By  half  past  ten  o'clock  there  were  per- 
haps five-and-twenty  persons  in  the  saloon,  and  a  plenty  of  conver- 
sation on  all  sides. 

*  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  246,  247. 


M.  44.]  PRINCE  AND  PRINCESS  METTERNICH.  7 

Prince  Metternicli  was  frec^uuiitly  called  out  on  business,  and  fre- 
quently taken  up  into  corners  of  the  saloon  in  a  mysterious  way. 
The  first  time  he  came  in  after  I  arrived,  he  came  to  me  and  spoke  to 
me  with  a  rather  formal  courtesy.     Afterwards  he  came  again,  and, 
inquiring  of  me  what  I  had  seen  in  Vienna,  took  for  his  subject  the 
Polytechnic  Institute,  and  talked  extremely  well  about  it  for  a  quar- 
ter of  an  hour  ;  said  its  e'leves  were  already  at  the  head  of  the  prin- 
cipal manufactories  in  the  empire,  that  the  manufactures  were  not 
only  improving,  but  that  there  is  an  increasing  demand  for  improved 
fabrics,  so  that  the  manufacturers  are  now  constantly  urging  the  re- 
duction of  the  tariff,  on  the  ground  that  they  can  better  enter  into 
competition  with  foreign  nations  than  with  smugglers.     He  said  the 
Austrian  government  maintained  a  tariff,  not  at  all  as  a  fiscal  measure, 
but  merely  to  protect  and  encourage  manufactures ;  that  the  system 
had  been  introduced  in  the  time  of  Joseph  11.  ;  that  if  he  had  been 
minister  at  the  time  he  should  have  advised  against  it,  but  that  it  is 
not  to  be  denied  that  it  has  effected  its  purpose  and  made  Austria  a 
manufacturing  country.     He  added  that  the  government  has  already 
abolished  that  part  of  the  laws  which  excludes  entirely  any  article 
whatever,  —  a  fact  which  Baron  Lerchenfeld  afterwards  told  me  he 
was  glad  to  hear,  as  it  had  not  before  been  made  known,  —  and  that 
in  general  an  anti-tariff  policy  is  now  pursued  by  Austria.     It  was 
the  only  time  in  the  evening  when  the  Prince  talked  to  any  one  with- 
out having  the  air  of  talking  on  business  ;  and  the  consequence  was, 
that  as  soon  as  the  conversation  was  fairly  begun  he  had  an  audience 
to  listen  to  him,  and  before  it  w^as  over  half  the  room  was  round  us. 
He  talked  very  well,  and  much  like  a  statesman  ;  always,  too,  with 
the  tone  of  one  who  has  been  accustomed  to  exercise  power  till  an 
air  of  authority  has  become  natural  to  him. 

The  Princess  made  tea  about  eleven  o'clock At  a  quarter 

past  twelve  I  was  at  home.  On  our  drive  home  I  told  Baron  Lerchen- 
feld that  the  Princess  seemed  to  me  sad.  He  explained  her  looks  by 
telling  me  that  a  fortnight  ago  she  lost  her  youngest  child,  about  three 
months  old  ;  but  so  much  is  her  salon  a  part  of  the  government  that 
she  was  obliged,  only  four  nights  afterwards,  to  be  in  her  place  to 
receive  company.  The  Prince  took  her  to  an  estate  in  Hungary  last 
week,  to  revive  her  a  little  ;  but  here  they  are  again,  both  of  them 
chained  to  their  oars. 

June  28.  —  I  made  a  visit  to  Mr.  Von  Hammer  in  his  to^\^l-house 
this  morning,  where  I  saw  his  curious  and  valuable  library  of  Orien- 
tal  manuscripts,  which  he  has  had  beautifully  bound  in  cedar  boards, 


8  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S36. 


putting  leather  only  over  the  back,  where  flexibility  is  necessary. 
His  purpose  in  using  cedar  is  to  keep  out  the  worms  and  all  other 
vermin.  He  talked  to  me  a  great  deal  about  Captain  Basil  Hall,  with 
whom  he  has  a  grievous  quarrel."^  .... 

I  visited,  too,  Kaltenbaeck,  the  editor  of  the  Austrian  periodical  for 
History  and  Statistics.  He  was  immersed  in  papers  and  books,  and 
complained  bitterly  of  the  trouble  given  him  by  the  merely  mechani- 
cal restraints  imposed  by  the  censorship,  which  take  up,  it  seems,  a 
great  deal  of  his  time  to  no  purpose,  as  he  is  careful  never  to  print,  or 
propose  to  print,  anything  that  could  offend.  I  talked  with  him  a 
good  deal  about  it,  and  as  the  censorship  of  the  press  is  more  truly  an 
eftective  part  of  the  system  of  things  in  Austria  than  it  ever  was  any- 
where else,  I  have  been  cuiious  to  inquii^e  into  it  and  understand  it  a 
little 

Great  complaints  are  made  of  delay.  Kaltenbaeck  said  to-day,  it  is 
often  intolerable.  On  one  occasion  Grillparzer,  the  best  of  their  dra- 
matic poets,  —  who,  I  am  sorry  to  find,  is  absent  from  Vienna  on  a 
journey,  —  presented  a  piece  to  the  censors,  and  got  no  answer  for  so 
long  a  time  that  he  was  vexed,  and  would  write  no  more.  One  day 
the  last  Emperor  asked  Grillparzer  why  they  had  had  nothing  new 
from  him  for  so  long  a  time,  and  the  poet  had  the  good  sense  to  tell 
him  the  truth.  The  Emperor  replied,  "Well,  send  me  the  manuscript, 
and  I  will  read  it."  He  did  so,  and  the  piece  was  ordered  to  be  rep- 
resented. But  he  seldom  thus  interfered.  I  remember  in  Dresden, 
Forbes,  who  was  Charge  in  Vienna  for  some  time,  and  who  is  per- 
fectly good  authority  for  a  story  of  the  sort,  told  me  that  the  Emperor 
went  one  night  to  see  a  new  piece  which  pleased  him  very  much,  and 
when  it  was  over,  said,  "  Well,  now  I  am  glad  I  have  heard  it,  for  I 
am  sure  ]\Ietternich  will  stop  it,  there  is  so  much  liberalism  in  it "  ; 
which  accordingly  happened. 

Von  Hammer  told  me  that  a  good  many  years  ago  he  wrote,  during 
some  travels  there,  a  volume  of  poems  about  Italy,  which  he  was 
aware  contained  passages  somewhat  too  free  for  the  meridian  of  Vi- 
enna, but  which  yet  passed  the  censorship  and  was  printed  anony- 

*  This  quarrel  arose  from  the  conduct  of  Captain  Hall,  during  a  visit  to  the 
Baroness  Purgstall,  an  aged  relative  of  Von  Hammer, — by  marriage, — who 
lived  in  Styria  ;  and  his  account  of  her  domestic  life  in  a  book  entitled  "  Schloss 
Hainfeld,  or  a  Winter  in  Styria,"  The  Baroness  Purgstall  was  a  native  of  Scot- 
land, and  appears  in  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott,  imder  her  maiden  name,  as  Miss 
Cranstoun.  Von  Hammer,  who  inherited  a  portion  of  her  estate,  and  added  the 
name  of  Purgstall  to  his  outi,  published  an  answer  to  Captain  Hall's  work. 


M.  41.]  ANASTASIUS  GRLJN. 


mously.  It  came  out,  however,  while  he  was  absent  from  Vienna, 
and  the  bookseller  was  so  indiscreet  as  to  announce  it,  in  some  way 
publicly,  as  the  work  of  Mr.  Von  Hammer,  in  consequence  of  which 
he  hastened  back  to  Vienna,  avowed  himself  as  the  writer,  but,  to  pre- 
vent being  ruined  by  it,  went  directly  to  the  censors,  and  had  a  dam- 
natur  put  upon  the  book,  which  excluded  it  entirely  from  circulation. 
He  gave  me  a  copy  of  it,  but  I  have  not  had  time  to  look  for  the 
obnoxious  passages. 

Count  Auersperg,  one  of  the  best  of  their  poets,  who  seems  to  be 
about  thirty-five  years  old,  published,  about  seven  years  ago,  a  vol- 
ume called  Spaxierganrje  eines  Wiener  Poeten,  —  "  Promenades  of  a 
Vienna  Poet,"  —  which  contained  some  liberalisms,  but  was  printed, 
and  much  admii-ed.  Von  Hammer  told  me  that,  though  unacquainted 
with  the  j)oet,  he  at  that  time  immediately  commended  him  to  Prince 
Metternich  as  a  person  to  be  noticed,  that  is,  as  a  person  to  receive 
some  j^lace,  and  so  be  secured  to  the  government.  The  Prince,  how- 
ever, who  has  very  little  respect  for  anything  poetical,  took  no  heed 
of  Von  Hammer's  recommendation.  Meantime,  Count  Auersperg 
went  on,  printing  books  that  could  not  be  published  in  Austria,  and 
among  the  rest  smidry  attacks  on  Metternich  himself,  all  under  the 
name  he  origmally  assumed  of  Anastasius  Griin.  On  being  asked 
whether  he  were  the  author  of  some  of  them,  he  denied  it,  —  a  proceed- 
ing which  Von  Hammer  thinks  altogether  mistaken.  Quite  lately 
he  has  printed  a  poem  called  Schutt,  —  "  Pubbish,"  —  which  is  more 
liberal  than  ever,  expressing  the  opinions  of  a  captain  of  an  American 
frigate,  anchored  just  before  the  schutt,  or  scoria,  of  Pompeii.  This 
poem  he  has  dedicated  to  Von  Hammer,  who  has  been  for  some  years 
his  acquaintance  and  friend.  A  short  time  since  Von  Hanmier  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  Prince  Metternich,  asking  who  Anastasius  Griin 
was,  who  had  dedicated  the  poem  of  Schutt  to  him,  —  a  question, 
which  the  Premier  could  have  answered  as  well  as  Von  Hammer.  Von 
Hammer  immediately  replied,  that  seven  years  ago  he  had  had  the 
honor  of  commending  Anastasius  Griin  to  the  Minister  as  a  person 
worthy  the  notice  of  the  government ;  that  somewhat  later  he  had 
published  a  sonnet  in  honor  of  Anastasius  Griin  ;  that  after  both  these 
circumstances  had  occurred,  he  had  become  personally  acquainted 
with  him  ;  and  that  the  recent  poem  had  been  dedicated  to  him  with- 
out his  knowledge,  i^robably  as  a  return  for  the  comj)limentary 
sonnet. 

To  this  letter,  which  did  not  mention  Anastasius  Griin's  true  name, 
Von  Hammer  has  received  no  answer,  and  will  probably  receive  none ; 
1* 


10  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 


the  object  of  the  Avhole  being  to  control  and  alarm  Count  Auersperg, 
as  Von  Hammer  thinks,  who  told  me  the  entire  story. 

What  Prince  Metternich  —  who  is  a  wise  statesman  —  can  hope  to 
do  with  such  means,  it  is  not  easy  to  tell.  Mr.  Krause,  of  Dresden, 
told  me  that  in  conversation  with  him,  formerly,  the  Prince  illustrated 
his  policy  by  saying  to  the  great  landed  proprietor,  "  If  on  your  estates 
you  had,  upon  that  great  height  that  overlooks  the  Elbe,  a  vast  reser- 
voir of  water  that  you  knew  every  moment  threatened  to  overwhelm 
your  rich  meadows,  and  must  certainly  one  day  come  down,  would 
you  at  once  break  through  the  dike  and  let  it  down  in  broad  ruin 
upon  your  lands,  or  would  you  carefully  perforate  it,  so  that  it  should 
send  down  the  floods  slowly  and  beneficently,  to  fertilize  your  fields 
instead  of  destro\dng  them  ] "  It  is  a  pretty  comparison,  but  that,  I 
fear,  is  all ;  though  perhaps  I  ought  to  add,  that  I  believe  well-edu- 
cated persons  can  get  such  books  as  they  want  in  Austria,  almost, 
perhaps  quite,  as  easily  as  elsewhere  in  Germany,  and  that  men  of 
learninfj  and  of  studious  habits  receive  a  carte  blanche  from  the  cen- 
sors  to  have  even  the  books  that  have  received  the  sentence  of  damn 
natur. 

....  In  the  early  part  of  the  evening  I  drove  to  Hietzing,  the 
pretty  village  on  the  borders  of  the  gardens  at  Schonbrunn,  and 
made  a  visit  to  the  old  Baron  Eskeles,  one  of  those  rich  bankers 
whom  the  policy  of  Metternich  has  ennobled.  He  has  a  fine  country- 
house  and  ample  grounds 

At  a  little  before  ten  I  drove  to  Prince  Metteniich's The 

company  had  hardly  begun  to  assemble.  Only  four  or  five  persons, 
among  whom  was  the  Minister  of  Police,  had  come  in,  and  the  Prince 
had  not  made  his  appearance.  The  Princess  sat  at  her  rug- work  as 
before,  but  seemed  less  sad.  I  sat  do'WTi  by  her,  and  we  fell  into  some 
downright  gossip,  which,  however,  mth  not  a  little  smartness,  she 
mixed  up  more  or  less  with  politics  and  passing  events.  We  were  in 
the  midst  of  it,  and  the  conversation  was  growdng  quite  piquant, 
when  somebody,  who  looked  as  if  he  might  be  a  secretary,  came  in, 
with  very  unceremonious  haste,  and  almost  running  up  to  the  Prin- 
cess, said  very  hurriedly,  "  Your  Highness,  the  King  of  Naples  is  just 
coming  in."  She  rose  instantly,  though  without  extraordinary  haste, 
or  as  if  anything  strange  had  occurred  ;  but  before  she  had  quite 
reached  the  door  of  the  saloon  he  entered,  followed  by  his  uncle, 
the  Prince  of  Salerno,  Prince  Metternich,  and  one  or  two  others. 

The  King  is  a  stout,  dark-complexioned,  sallow  young  man  of  six- 
and-twenty,  a  little  awkward  in  his  manners  and  address,  with  black 


.E.  44.]  KING   OF  NAPLES.  11 

eyes,  and  not  an  agreeable  expression  of  countenance,  but  still  not  a 
very  bail  one.  He  is  said  to  be  vulgar  and  ill-tempered.  Among 
other  tilings  that  are  reported  of  him,  a  diplomatic  gentleman  told  me 
lie  knew  it  to  be  a  fact  that  he  had  been  rude  to  his  late  Queen, 
a  Princess  of  Sardinia,  —  he  pulled  out  a  chair  from  under  her,  so 
that  she  fell  to  the  floor.  She  had  the  spirit  to  turn  upon  him  and 
say,  "  I  thought  I  had  married  a  gentleman,  but  I  lind  I  have  mar- 
ried a  Lazzarone" 

....  Everybody  stood  up  as  they  came  in,  and  remained  standing 
while  they  were  there,  except  the  Princess  and  another  lady. 

There  were  twenty  or  thirty  persons  present,  including  the  Minis- 
ter at  War,  Count  Dietrichstein,  Count  Bombelles,  etc.  The  Prince 
was  truly  courteous  and  attentive  to  his  guests,  but  his  very  dignified 
bearing  towards  them  amiounced  his  superiority  in  a  way  not  to  be 
mistaken.  Those  who  entered  the  saloon  [during  the  royal  visit]  did 
not  present  themselves  to  him  or  to  the  Princess,  and  he  spoke  to  few 
persons.  Once  he  came  to  me  and  asked  when  I  should  leave  Vienna, 
and  on  my  telling  him,  ....  he  seemed  surprised,  and  invited  me 
to  dine  with  him  on  Friday,  saying  he  would  dine  at  the  Chancery  on 
that  day  at  four.  A  few  moments  afterwards  he  came  back  and  said 
he  understood  I  liked  old  books,  and  that  if  I  would  come  at  three 
o'clock  instead  of  four,  he  would  show  me  his  library.  But  in  gen- 
eral he  gave  his  whole  attention  to  the  King,  who  was  supposed  to  do 
him  a  great  honor  by  such  an  unceremonious  call.  The  Princess,  too, 
was  quietly  devoted  to  him.  Au  rests,  there  was  no  gene.  Conversa- 
tion was  general  round  the  room,  and  half  a  dozen  of  the  party,  who 
grew  hungw,  —  from  the  delay  of  tea,  —  slid  demurely  round  to  the 
tea-table,  and  ate  up  the  cakes  and  sandwiches 

When  the  party  left.  Prince  Metternich  went  out  before  them  to 
show  the  way,  and  I  thought,  as  he  crossed  the  saloon,  that  his  mov- 
ing figure  was  the  most  dignified  and  imposing  I  ever  looked  upon,  — 
a  striking  contrast  to  the  poor  royalty  that  followed.  The  Princess 
went  as  far  as  the  outer  saloon,  and  the  Prince  accompanied  them  to 
their  carriage.  \Vhen  the  Princess  came  back  she  scolded  the  ofentle- 
men  good-humoredly  for  despoiling  her  tea-table  when  she  could  not 
defend  it,  ordered  in  other  refreshments,  and  made  tea.  But  it  was 
getting  late  ;  I  took  French  leave  and  hiu-ried  back  to  Vienna,  but 
did  not  get  there  till  nearly  one  o'clock. 

June  30.  — .  ...  At  four  I  went  to  dine  with  Baron  Lerchen- 
feld,  and  found  he  had  been  so  civil  as  to  ask  chiefly  such  persons  as 
he  knew  to  be  my  acquaintance  in  Vienna,  —  Jarcke  ;  Count  Bom- 


12  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

belles  ;  Von  Hammer ;  Count  Dietrichstein,  who  was  tlie  Governor 
of  tlie  Duke  of  Reichstadt,  and  is  now  tlie  principal  officer  attached 
to  the  person  of  the  reigning  Empress,  and  is  one  of  the  most  ele- 
gant and  winning  gentlemen  I  have  met ;  with  such  as  he  thought 
I  might  be  glad  to  see,  —  Naumann,  long  one  of  their  employes  in 
England  ;  Baron  Zedlitz,  who  writes  for  the  theatre,  and  among  other 
things  has  made  a  sort  of  rifacimento  of  the  Estrella  de  Sevilla; 
the  Minister  of  War  ;  and  some  others  whom  I  did  not  know.  I 
talked  chiefly  with  Count  Dietrichstein,  Count  Bombelles,  and  Baron 
Zedlitz,  and  had  a  very  agreeable  time. 

In  the  evening  I  drove  out  to  Von  Hammer's,  who  held  this 
evening  his  weekly  soiree.  Thirty  or  forty  persons  were  there  ; 
among  the  rest  Caroline  Pichler,  whom  I  was  very  glad  to  see,  for 
the  sake  of  her  fifty  volumes  of  romances,  some  of  which  are  good, 
and  have  been  translated  into  English,  French,  and  Italian.  She 
seemed  a  nice,  pleasant  old  lady.  ]\Ir.  McNeill  was  there,  whom  I 
remember  to  have  met  in  London  at  dinner  last  year,  recently  re- 
turned from  Persia He  is  now  going  there  again  as  British 

Minister.  He  is  a  very  interesting  and  intellectual  gentleman  ;  more- 
over, a  fine  scholar  in  Western  as  well  as  Eastern  literature.  Among 
them  all  I  passed  a  truly  agreeable  evening. 

July  1.  — .  ...  At  a  little  before  three  o'clock  I  went  to  the 
Chancery,  and  made  a  visit  to  Von  Hammer  in  his  office,  and  after 
that  w^ent  to  Prince  Metternich's  magaiificent  apartments. 

The  business  of  the  morning,  however,  was  not  cj^uite  over,  and 
two  persons  were  still  waiting  in  the  antechamber.  The  JNIinister 
of  Police  came  out  of  the  cabinet,  and  one  who,  I  understood  after- 
■wards,  had  formerly  been  Minister  of  Finance  to  the  King  of  Sar- 
dinia, was  admitted.  His  business  did  not  occupy  the  Premier  many 
minutes.  A  Hungarian  Count,  dressed  in  a  full  suit  of  really  splen- 
did uniform  as  a  Hussar  officer,  next  passed  in,  carrying  in  his  hand 
a  huge  letter  ^\dth  broad  black  edges,  containing,  as  I  learnt,  a  reply 
to  the  letter  of  condolence  which  this  officer  had  carried  to  the 
present  King  of  Saxony  on  the  death  of  the  late  King,"^  ....  and 
when  this  was  over  the  Prince  came  out  into  the  antechamber  to  me. 
Meanwhile,  however,  Von  Hammer  had  joined  me  there,  and  said 
he  wanted  to  speak  to  the  Premier.  I  told  him  I  was  only  going  in 
to  see  the  library,  and  he  said  he  would  go  in  with  me. 

When,  therefore,  the  Prince  came  out,  we  both  went  towards  the 
door  to  meet  him.     But  it  was  plain,  in  an  instant,  that  he  did  not 

*  King  Anton  had  died  June  6. 


M.  44.]  CONVERSATION  WITH  METTERNICH.  1 


o 


metui  to  liave  a  visit  from  ^\t.  Von  Haniiner.  Notliiiig  could  be 
more  coiidct^ceiuliiig  than  he  was,  nothing  more  kind  ;  but  it  was  in 
vain  the  Orientalist  told  him  he  knew  me  very  well  and  moved  again 
towards  the  door,  for  the  Prince  insisted,  though  merely  by  his 
manner,  upon  hearing  there  what  he  had  to  say.  It  was  simply  to 
ask  when  he  might  present  to  him  Mr.  McNeill,  the  British  Ambas- 
sad(^r  to  Persia,  which  the  Prince  told  him  he  might  do  the  next 
morning  in  his  cabinet,  and  then  most  politely  bowed  away  the 
somewhat  disconcerted  scholar.  He  took  me  now  directly  into  his 
cabinet,  and  seating  me  in  the  same  comfortable  easy-chair  where 
I  sat  the  other  day,  took  the  somewhat  more  simple  one  opposite, 
himself,  leaving  the  same  plain  little  table  between  us,  with  a  few 
business-like  looking  papers  on  it. 

"  You  know  M.  Von  Hammer,  then,"  he  said,  laughing.  I  told  him 
I  had  brou*^ht  letters  to  him,  and  that  he  had  been  verv  kind  to  me. 
"A  very  extraordinary  person,  quite  unique  in  his  department  in 
Europe.  But,  like  almost  all  the  philologists,  he  is  very  quarrelsome. 
I  do  not  know  what  it  is  in  their  pursuits  that  makes  them  so  sen- 
sitive ;  but  I  have  known  a  great  many  in  my  life,  and  almost  all 
of  them  have  been  frequently  in  personal  difficulties.  Perhaps  M. 
Von  Hammer  has  told  you  about  his  quarrel  with  Captain  Basil 
Hall."  I  told  him  he  had.  "  I  thought  so,"  said  he,  laughing  heart- 
ily. "Captain  Hall  is  a  man  of  talent, — un  Jiomme  cV esprit,  —  he 
writes  well,  but  he  seems  really  to  have  been  a  little  unreasonable  in 
his  visit  at  the  old  lady's  castle  in  Styria."  And  again  he  laughed 
very  heartily. 

"  There  is  nothing  more  important  for  a  man  "  —  he  then  went  on,  ' 

mero  motu  suo  —  "than  to  be  reasonable  and  moderate  in  his  ex- 
pectations, and  especially  not  to  wish  to  do  anything  he  cannot 
accomplish.  I  am  myself  moderate  in  everything,  and  I  endeavor  to 
become  more  moderate.     I  have  a  calm  disposition,  a  very  calm  one, 

—  J\ii  Vesprit  calme,  tres  calme.  I  am  passionate  about  nothing,  — 
Je  ne  suis  jMssionne  pour  rien.  Therefore  I  have  no  foolish  mistakes 
to  reproach  myself  with,  —  Ainsi  je  n'ai  pas  de  sottises  d  me  reprocher. 
But  I  am  very  often  misunderstood.  I  am  thought  to  be  a  great 
absolutist  in  my  policy.  But  I  am  not.  It  is  true  I  do  not  like  de- 
mocracies ;  democracy  is  everywhere  and  always — partout  et  toiijours 

—  a  dissolving,  decomposing  principle  ;  it  tends  to  separate  men,  it 
loosens  society.  This  does  not  suit  my  character.  I  am  by  charac- 
ter and  habit  constructive,  — Je  suis  par  caractere  et  par  habitude  con- 
structeur. 


14  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1836. 


"  Monarcliy,  therefore,  is  the  only  government  fitted  to  my  mind  ; 
the  only  government  in  which  I  could  be  useful.  Monarchy  alone 
tends  to  bring  men  together,  to  unite  them  into  compact  and  effective 
masses  ;  to  render  them  capable,  by  their  combined  efforts,  of  the 
Liuhest  decrees  of  culture  and  civilization." 

I  objected  to  this,  that  though  the  government  in  a  republic  is  of 
less  consequence  than  the  government  in  a  monarchy,  indi\dduals  are 
of  much  more  consequence  ;  that  men  are  more  truly  mew,  have  wider 
views  and  a  more  active  intelligence,  where  they  do  almost  every- 
thing for  themselves,  than  where,  as  in  monarchies,  almost  everything 
is  done  for  them,  etc.  He  listened  with  great  readiness  to  all  I  had 
to  say,  —  for  lie  is  eminently  elegant  and  wiiming  in  his  ways,  —  and 
then  replied  :  — 

"  You  refer,  I  see,  to  your  country,  as  I  do  to  mine.  I  am  aware 
your  country  never  could  have  made  so  much  progress  in  so  short 
a  time  under  any  other  than  a  democratic  system  ;  for  democracy, 
wliile  it  separates  men,  creates  rivalships  of  all  kinds,  and  carries 
them  forward  very  fast  by  competition  among  themselves.  Take  .a 
thousand  individuals  in  America,  and  a  thousand  in  France  or  our 
old  Austria,  —  iiotre  vieille  Autriche,  as  he  constantly  called  it,  —  and 
there  will  be  manv  more  marked  and  characteristic  individualities 
among  the  Americans  than  among  the  Frenchmen  or  the  Austrians  ; 
they  will  be  more  curious,  too,  more  distinct,  more  interesting — even, 
perhaps,  more  efficient — as  individuals  ;  but  they  will  not  constitute  so 
efficient  a  mass,  nor  one  so  likely  to  make  permanent  progress.  Be- 
sides, democracy  is  natural  to  you  ;  you  have  always  been  democrats, 
and  democracy  is,  therefore,  a  reality  —  une  ve'rite  —  in  America.  In 
Europe  it  is  a  falsehood,  and  I  hate  all  falsehood,  —  En  Europe  c'est 
un  mensonge.  I  have  always,  however,  been  of  the  opinion  expressed 
by  Tocque\411e,  that  democracy,  so  far  from  being  the  oldest  and 
simplest  form  of  government,  as  has  been  so  often  said,  is  the  latest 
invented  form  of  all,  and  the  most  complicated.  "With  you  in  Amer- 
ica it  seems  to  be  un  tour  de  force  loerpetuel.  You  are,  therefore,  often 
in  dangerous  positions,  and  your  system  is  one  that  wears  out  fast, — 
qiii  s'use  vtte" 

I  said,  "  A  young  constitution  easily  throws  off  diseases  that  would 
destroy  life  in  an  old  one,"  etc. 

"  True,  true,"  he  replied  ;  "  you  will  go  on  much  further  in  de- 
mocracy ;  you  will  become  much  more  democratic.  I  do  not  know 
where  it  will  end,  nor  how  it  ^^ill  end  ;  but  it  cannot  end  in  a  quiet, 
ripe  old  age." 


M.  44.]  FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND.  15 

He  asked  me  who  will  be  our  next  President.  I  told  liim  that  it 
will  be  Van  Buren  ;  and  that,  as  I  do  not  desire  it,  he  might  consider 
my  opinion  at  least  unprejudiced.  He  answered,  "Neither  should  I 
be  of  Mr.  Van  Buren's  party,  if  I  were  in  America.  I  should  rather 
be  of  that  old  party  of  which  Washington  was  originall}^  the  head. 
It  was  a  sort  of  conservative  party,  and  I  should  be  conservative 
almost  everywhere,  certainly  in  England  and  America.  Your  coun- 
try is  a  very  important  one.  This  government  is  about  to  establish 
regular  diplomatic  relations  with  it.  You  have  always  managed  your 
ail'airs  with  foreign  nations  with  ability." 

I  do  not  remember  what  followed  M'ith  sufficient  distinctness  to 
repeat  it ;  but  after  talking  a  little  about  Austria,  and  praising  the 
late  Emperor  very  much,  as  a  man  of  perfect  uprightness  of  pur- 
pose and  a  strong  will  and  character,  he  turned  the  conversation  upon 
Europe,  and  said  several  times  in  the  course  of  it,  "  The  present  state 
of  Europe  is  disgusting  to  me,  —  L'efat  actuel  de  I'EurojJe  m/est  de- 
goittant.  England  is  advancing  towards  a  revolution,  —  L'Angleterre 
marclie  vers  une  revolution."  On  my  expressing  a  strong  hope  and 
belief  that  she  would  be  spared  it,  he  replied  very  decidedly  :  — 

"  A^07?,  Monsieur,  elle  ne  Ve'chappera  -pas.  .England,  too,  has  no  great 
statesmen  now,  no  great  statesmen  of  any  party,  and  woe  to  the  coun- 
try whose  condition  and  institutions  no  longer  produce  great  men  to 
manage  its  affairs.  France,  on  the  contrary,  has  the  Revolution  be- 
hind her,  —  La  France  a  la  Revolution  en  dos"  —  a  phrase  which  he 
repeated  several  times  in  the  course  of  the  conversation. 

"She  is  like  a  man  who  has  just  passed  thoroughly  through  a  se- 
vere disease.  He  is  not  so  likely  to  take  it  as  if  he  had  never  had 
it.  But  France,  too,  wants  men  of  ability  ;  Louis  Philippe  is  the 
ablest  statesman  they  have  had  for  a  great  while.  And  then  in  France 
there  is  such  a  want  of  stability.  On  the  7th  of  next  month  I  shall 
have  sat  in  this  very  chair,  as  the  director  of  the  affairs  of  this  mon- 
archy, twenty-seven  years,  and  in  the  course  of  that  time  I  have  had 
intercourse  with  twenty-eight  Ministers  of  Foreign  Aftairs  in  France. 
I  counted  them  up  the  day  I  had  been  here  twenty-five  years,  and 
there  had  been  just  twenty-five  ;  but  in  the  last  two  years  there  have 
been  three.  So,"  said  he,  laughing,  "  I  have  one  to  spare  over  the 
number  of  years  I  have  been  here,  and  I  shall  soon  have  another.''^ 

"This  is  very  bad  for  a  country  like  France.  France,  too,  acts 
badly  upon  England  ;  and,  indeed,  France  and  England  have  always 

*  Note  by  Mr.  Ticknor  :  "  This  was  said  during  Thiers'  administration, 
•wliich  in  about  six  weeks  was  dissolved." 


16  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 


acted  badly  upon  each  other,  exciting  each  other  to  violent  corre- 
sponding changes.  The  influence  of  France  on  England  since  1830 
has  been  very  bad.  The  affair  of  July,  1830,  is  called  a  revolution  : 
it  was  no  such  thing  ;  it  was  a  lucky  rebellion,  which  changed  those  at 
the  head  of  the  government,  nothing  else.  But  when  Louis  Philippe 
said,  at  the  famous  arrangement  of  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  '  La  Charte  de- 
viendra  une  verite,'  he  uttered  a  falsehood,  —  il  dit  un  mensonge ;  there 
existed  no  Charter  at  the  moment  when  he  spoke,  for  that  of  1814  was 
destroyed,  and  what  might  become  the  Charter  afterwards  he  knew  as 
little  as  anybody  in  such  a  moment  of  uncertainty.  The  elements  of 
things  in  France  are  very  bad  ;  there  is  a  great  deal  of  soi-disant  re- 
publicanism, which  some  of  them  think  they  have  taken  from  your 
country,  but  which  is  nothing  like  yours.  And  there  is  a  good  deal 
of  our  German  idealism  and  theorizing  which  is  entirely  at  war  with 
the  French  character,  which  is  very  practical  and  very  selfish.  And 
there  is  a  great  deal  of  talk  about  a  constitutional  government  like 
the  English,  which  they  can  comprehend  as  little  as  they  can  our 
German  theories  or  your  practical  democracy.  Altogether  it  is  a  bad 
melange.  I  think  I  see  it  as  it  is.  J^ai  becmcou]j  de  calme,  je  ne  mets 
de  passion  a  rien.  J\vime  la  verite,  et  je  la  cherche.  Je  hdis  le  men- 
songe. 

"  I  do  not  like  my  business,  —  Je  n'aime  pas  man  metier.  If  I 
liked  it,  I  should  not  be  able  to  preserve  the  quietness  of  spirit  — 
le  calme  —  necessary  to  it.  Besides  this,  the  present  state  of  Europe 
disgusts  me  ;  I  am  tired  of  it.  When  I  was  five-and-twenty  years 
old,  I  foresaw  nothing  but  change  and  trouble  in  my  time  ;  and  I 
sometimes  thought  then  that  I  would  leave  Europe  and  go  to  Amer- 
ica, or  somewhere  else,  out  of  the  reach  of  it.  But  my  place  was 
here.  I  belonged,  as  it  were,  to  an  entail,  —  dun  majorat,  —  and  I 
could  not  remove.  Even  my  private  fortune  was  fastened  to  the  soil, 
and  would  not  have  been  permitted  to  follow  me.  And  so  I  have 
gone  on,  and  have  been  here  at  the  head  of  affiiirs  since  1809. 

"  I  did  not  make  the  peace  of  1809,  for  I  did  not  choose  to  make  it. 
When  a  minister  begins,  under  such  circumstances  as  I  began  under 
then,  he  must  have  a  clear  ground,  —  un  terrain  net,  —  or  he  will  not 
be  able  to  move  at  all.  But  since  I  have  been  here  I  have  always 
been  the  same, — j'ai  ete  toujours  le  meme.  Je  n'ai  trompe'  iKrsonne,  et 
c'est  par  cette  raison  que  je  n'ai  pas  un  ennemi  personnel  au  monde.  I 
have  had  many  colleagues,  I  have  been  obliged  to  remove  many 
of  them, — j'ai  ^te'  oblige  d'en  f rapper  heaucoup,  —  but  I  never  de- 
ceived them,  and  not  one  of  them  is  now  my  j)ersonal  enemy,  jjas  un 


M.  44.]  DINNER  AT  THE  KANZLEI.  1 7 

seul.  I  have  been  consulted  at  clifFerent  times  by  many  heads  of  par- 
ties in  other  countries,  who  wanted  to  make  great  changes  or  revolu- 
tions. I  have  always  talked  with  them,  as  I  now  talk  with  you, 
directly,  frankly,  truly,  —  diredement,  franchemejit,  avec  verity ;  very 
often  afterwards  I  have  crushed  them,  — je  les  ai  ecrases,  —  but  I  have 
never  deceived  them,  and  they  are  not  now  my  personal  enemies.  I 
am  less  exposed,  too,  to  make  personal  enemies  than  most  persons  in 
my  situation  would  be,  for  another  reason  :  I  labor  chiefly,  almost 
entirely,  to  prevent  troubles,  to  prevent  evil.  In  a  democracy  you 
cannot  do  this.  There  you  must  begin  by  the  evil,  and  endure  it,  till 
it  has  been  felt  and  acknowledged,  and  then,  perhaps,  you  can  apply 
the  remedv. 

"  This  is  another  reason  why  democracies  do  not  suit  me,  —  ne  me 
conviennent  j^as.  I  care  nothing  about  the  past,  except  as  a  warning 
for  the  future.  The  present  day  has  no  value  for  me,  except  as  the 
eve  of  to-morrow,  —  Le  jour  qui  court  n'a  aiccune  valeur  pour  moi,  ex- 
cepte  comme  la  veille  du  lendemain.  I  labor  for  to-morrow.  I  do  not 
venture  even  to  think  much  of  the  day  following,  but  to-morrow,  it 
is  with  to-morrow  that  my  spirit  wrestles, — mon  esprit  lutte, — and  I 
am  but  too  happy  if  I  can  do  something  to  prevent  the  evil  it  may 
threaten,  or  add  something  to  the  good  of  which  it  is  capable,"  etc.,  etc. 

C^est  toujours  avec  le  lendemain  que  mon  esprit  lutte,  is  a  fine  phrase,  r 

and  he  pronounced  it  with  great  force,  perhaps  with  emotion. 

He  spoke  with  great  earnestness,  especially  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
conversation  ;  was  eloquent  in  many  parts  of  it,  gesticulated  fre- 
quently, and  occasionally  struck  forcibly  the  little  table  between  us  ; 
but  he  was  always  dignified,  winning,  and  easy  in  his  whole  air  and 
manner. 

The  conversation  lasted  above  an  hour  and  an  half,  and  I  am  ac- 
curate in  M'hat  I  have  given  of  it ;  but  I  have  given  only  the  thread 
of  it,  and  its  more  striking  parts,  omitting  almost  all  of  what  I  inter- 
posed, and  all  I  do  not  distinctly  remember. 

Soon  after  four  a  servant  came  in  and  announced  dinner  ;  but  the 
Prince  did  not  notice  him  at  all.  About  half  past  four  another  came, 
an  old  man  with  powdered  hair  and  in  full  dress,  to  whom  the  Prince 
merely  said,  "  Very  well,"  and  went  on  as  earnestly  as  ever.  Soon 
after  a  third  entered,  and  said,  "  The  Princess  orders  me  to  let  your 
Highness  know  it  wants  only  a  quarter  to  five."  "Well,"  said  he 
to  me,  laughing,  "  since  my  wife  sends  for  us,  we  must  go  "  ;  though 
still  he  talked  a  little  longer,  and  during  the  whole  time,  from  begin- 
ning to  end,  did  not  seem  to  take  his  eyes  off  my  countenance. 

B 


18  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

At  last  he  rose,  and,  showing  me  to  the  door  by  which  I  had 
entered,  said,  "  If  you  will  go  to  my  wife  in  the  saloon  I  will  join 
you  in  a  moment."  I  passed  through  the  rich  and  beautiful  library, 
containing,  I  understand,  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  volumes,  but  of 
which,  by  the  by,  not  a  syllable  had  been  said  in  the  conversation, 
though  I  had  been  invited  expressly  to  come  and  visit  it.  I  passed, 
too,  through  the  first  vast  antechamber,  which  was  empty,  and 
through  the  second,  where  the  dinner-table  was  waiting.  After  this 
began  a  suite  of  very  richly  furnished  rooms,  through  which  I  ad- 
vanced until  their  number  had  become  so  considerable  that  I  began  to 
think  I  had  made  some  mistake  ;  but  a  servant,  seeing  me  hesitate, 
came  to  me  and  showed  me  through  two  or  three  more,  until  I  came 
to  the  saloon  where  the  Princess  was  sitting,  with  three  old  ladies  and 
two  gentlemen,  one  of  whom  I  had  seen  before.  It  was  a  splendid 
room,  most  magnificently  furnished,  and  so  large  that  five  ormoulu 
chandeliers  of  great  size  and  beauty  were  suspended  from  its  ceiling. 
I  have  seen  few  saloons  in  palaces  so  rich,  and  still  fewer  in  such  good 
taste. 

As  soon  as  I  entered  it,  "Well,"  said  the  Princess,  "I  hope  you 
have  had  an  agreeable  conference  with  my  husband,  for  it  has  been  a 
long  one."  "  So  long,"  said  one  of  the  old  ladies,  —  who  was  also  a 
princess,  but  I  know  not  from  where,  —  "  so  long  that  it  has  made  me 
very  hungry."  They  all  laughed  heartily,  and  we  had  some  lively 
talk  for  a  few  moments,  till  the  Premier  came  in,  and,  apologizing 
slightly  for  his  tardiness,  took  the  hungry  old  Princess  and  led  the 
way  to  dinner. 

The  Princess  Mettemich  took  my  arm,  and  after  a  journey  through 
the  suite  of  apartments  where  I  had  nearly  lost  myself  just  before,  we 
reached  the  dinner-table,  which  was  round  and  had  eight  covers,  and 
the  same  number  of  attendants,  only  one  or  two  of  whom  were  in 
livery.  The  dinner  was  as  delicious,  I  suppose,  as  the  science  of 
cookery  could  make  it,  and  extended  through  from  ten  to  fourteen 
courses,  with  many  kinds  of  wines,  and  among  the  rest  Tokay  ;  but 
nothing  could  be  easier  or  more  degage  than  the  tone  at  table.  At 
first,  the  conversation  was  mere  commonplace  gossip.  We  had  good 
Johannisberg,  of  course,  and  the  Princess  made  some  jokes  about  her 
selling  it  to  the  Americans,  to  which  the  Prince  added,  that  he  had  an 
agent  in  New  York  for  the  purpose,  and  that  we  could  buy  there  as 
good  wine  as  he  gives  to  his  friends  in  Vienna. 

In  the  midst  of  this,  a  secretary  came  in  and  delivered  a  despatch, 
that  moment  received,  he  said,  by  express  from  Paris.     The  news  of 


JE.  44.]  LORD  MELBOURNE.  19 

the  attempt  to  assassinate  Louis  Philippe,  as  he  was  going  to  Neuilly, 
had  been  received  by  telegraph  a  couple  of  days  before,  but  as  noth- 
ing had  come  since,  everybody  was  curious  to  know  the  details.  The 
Prince  opened  his  packet  at  once,  but  found  little  news  in  it,  as  it 
was  sent  off  immediately  after  the  event.  It  contained,  however,  the 
name  of  the  assassin,  Alibaud,  and  the  fact  that  he  was  a  native  of 
Nismes,  and  twenty-five  years  old  ;  this  being  all  M.  d'Appony  had 
been  able  to  cater  in  the  first  moments  of  the  arrest. 

But  there  was  a  newspaper  in  the  parcel,  which  the  Prince  sent 
immediately  round  to  the  Princess,  and  desired  her  to  read  aloud  from 
it  what  was  marked  in  pencil  with  red.  It  turned  out  to  be  Lord 
Melbourne's  trial  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Norton.  She  read  on  for  a 
moment  or  two,  and  then  casting  her  eye  forward,  said,  "  But  there 
are  things  here,  Clement,  that  are  not  to  be  read,  —  Mais  il  y  a  des 
cJwses  ici,  Clement,  qui  ne  se  lisent  pas"  "  Well,"  said  he,  laughing, 
"  read  us  the  end  at  least ;  let  us  know  what  the  decision  was ;  you  can 
read  that"  She  turned  to  it  and  read  the  acquittal.  The  Premier 
made  no  remark  about  it,  nor  did  anybody  else,  though  I  knew  he 
was  very  anxious  to  have  another  result ;  but  he  turned  to  me,  and 
asked  if  our  laws  in  America  on  such  matters  resembled  the  English 
laws,  and  continued  the  conversation  on  this  subject  till  the  dinner 
was  over. 

His  dislike  of  Lord  ]\Ielbourne's  administration  is  very  great  and 
notorious.  Mr.  Forbes  told  me  that,  as  British  Charge  d'Affaires  at 
Viemia,  he  communicated  officially  to  Metternich  the  fact  of  its  for- 
mation, and  that  the  Prince  received  the  notice  with  great  indigna- 
tion. If  Lord  ]\Ielbourne  had  been  convicted  he  must  have  gone  out, 
and  perhaps  the  Ministry  would  have  been  entirely  dissolved,  —  an 
event  which  would  have  diminished,  I  am  sure,  the  Prince's  disgust 
at  the  present  state  of  Europe.  But  when  the  Princess  announced 
the  acquittal,  he  received  it  as  a  thing  perfectly  indifferent. 

In  the  saloon  we  found  three  or  four  gentlemen  waiting,  and  among 
the  rest  Naumann,  whom  I  met  at  Baron  Lerchenfeld's  yesterday. 
Coffee  was  served,  ....  and  general  conversation  followed.  The 
Prince  sat  down  in  the  window,  and,  taking  up  Lord  Melbourne's 
trial,  seemed  to  lose  all  consciousness  of  an}i;hing  else.  The  Princess 
showed  me  the  pictures  in  the  saloon  and  a  magnificent  porcelain 
vase,  with  a  portrait  of  the  late  Emperor  of  Austria,  presented  recently 
to  her  husband  by  the  Emperor  of  Eussia.  She  was  very  pleasant ; 
but  it  was  now  eight  o'clock,  the  company  was  separating,  I  had  been 
there  five  hours,  and  it  was  time  to  go. 


20  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

The  Prince  was  consistently  courteous  to  the  last,  followed  me  to 
the  door  with  kind  compliments,  and  then,  turning  back,  ceased,  I 
dare  say,  in  five  minutes,  to  think  or  remember  anything  more  about 
me,  as  Sancho  says,  than  "  about  the  shapes  of  the  last  year's  clouds." 
I  take  him  to  be  the  most  consummate  statesman  of  his  sort  that  our 
time  has  produced.* 

*  Baron  Humboldt  wrote  to  Mr.  Ticknor  from  Sans  Soiici,  September  8, 
1S37  :  "Le  Prince  Metternich,  que  j'ai  vu  a  Tejjlitz,  a  ete  ravi  des  eutretiens 
qu'il  a  eus  avec  vovis.  Ne  dans  une  rei^ublique,  vous  aurez,  pourtant,  paru  plus 
raisomiable  a  ses  yeux,  que  ce  qu'il  appelle  mon  Uberahsme." 


M.  44.]  ST.   POLTEN.  21 


CHAPTEE    II. 

From  Vienna  to  Florence. — Austrian  Monasteries. — Austrian  and 
Bavarian  Alps.  —  Munich.  —  Lausanne.  —  Geneva.  —  Turin.  —  Gen- 
eral La  Harpe.  —  Count  Balho.  —  Pellico.  —  Manzoni. 

JOURNAL. 

July  2.  —  Tliis  morning  we  left  Vienna In  the  latter  part 

of  the  forenoon  we  hatl  fine  views  of  the  Danube,  and  the  country 
beyond  it.  It  is  a  grand  river,  rising  in  the  square  of  the  city  of 
Donauschingen,  in  the  Grand  Duchy  of  Baden,  entering  Austria  be- 
low P'assau,  and  leaving  it  near  Orsova,  but  not  finally  discharging 
itself  into  the  Bhick  Sea  until  it  has  had  a  course  of  fully  1,550  Eng- 
lish miles.  For  Austria  it  is  of  vast  consequence,  and,  with  the  prog- 
ress of  the  arts  and  improvements  of  peace,  will  become  every  day  of 
more  consequence  ;  for,  by  itself  and  its  large  tributaries,  such  as  the 
Inn,  the  Traun,  and  the  Enns,  it  embraces  and  binds  together  two 
thirds  of  the  monarchy 

We  stopped  for  the  night  at  St.  Pcilten,*  ....  a  city  of  4,000  in- 
habitants, well  situated  in  the  plain,  and  commanding  fine  views  of 
the  mountains  of  Styria,  which  we  enjoyed  from  the  public  walk  just 
outside  the  gate.  While  we  were  there,  a  procession  of  two  hundred 
men,  women,  and  children  passed  into  the  city,  chanting  hymns  as 
they  followed  the  banner  of  St.  Hippolytus,  the  patron  saint  of  their 
city.  They  were  returning  from  the  great  monastery  of  Molk,  four- 
teen English  miles  ofi',  to  which  they  had  yesterday  gone  on  a  pil- 
grimage, to  fulfil  the  vows  of  the  city,  made  two  hundred  years  ago, 
to  avert  a  plague  then  raging  among  them,  and  which  they  fear  may 
return  if  the  vows  be  not  annually  accomplished.  They  had  a  pic- 
turesque look,  and,  as  they  passed  bareheaded  themselves,  everybody 
took  off"  their  hats 

July  3.  —  AYe  had  another  fine  drive  this  morning,  but  a  short  one, 
of  only  about  fourteen  or  fifteen  English  miles,  through  a  rich  and 
flourishing  country,  with  the  Styrian  Mountains,  still  snow-clad,  on. 

*  A  corruption  of  St.  Hippolytus. 


22  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 


our  left,  until  at  last  we  came  very  abruptly  upon  the  magnificent 
monastery  of  Molk,  with  the  village  of  the  same  name  below  it. 

The  monastery  itself  stands  upon  an  abrupt  rock,  above  an  hundred 
feet  high,  rising  perpendicularly  from  the  Danube,  and  is  one  of  those 
enormous  structures  whose  foundation  belongs  to  another  period  of 
the  world's  history.  It  goes  back,  in  fact,  to  the  tenth  century  (984), 
by  authentic  documents,  though  the  present  regular  and  imposing 
building  was  erected  between  1701  and  1736,  and  bears  the  date  of 
1718  on  its  fine  and  massive  portal.  We  wished  to  see  it,  and  had, 
therefore,  brought  letters  which  insured  us  the  hospitality  and  civility 
of  the  monks ;  a  hospitality  and  civility,  however,  I  ought  to  add, 
which  is  most  freely  granted  to  all  who  have  any  pretensions  to  ask 

them.* 

We  drove  directly  through  the  two  spacious  courts,  round  which 
their  monastery  is  built,  and,  passing  under  a  noble  archway,  stopped 
at  the  bottom  of  a  flight  of  marble  stairs,  which  would  have  done 
honor  to  a  palace.  A  servant  appeared  instantly  and  showed  us  to  a 
suite  of  very  large,  richly  furnished  rooms,  where  the  old  "guest- 
master  "  appeared  immediately  afterwards,  —  a  venerable,  gentle  old 
man  of  seventy-six,  —  and  begged  us  to  make  ourselves  entirely  com- 
fortable, and  to  command  whatever  we  wanted.  Our  letter  of  intro- 
duction was  sent  to  the  librarian,  who  expressed  his  regret  that  he 
could  not  leave  the  library  until  after  twelve  o'clock,  but  hoped  to 
see  us  there  at  any  time  that  would  suit  our  convenience. 

When  we  had  refreshed  ourselves,  the  guest-master  carried  us  to  see 
the  monastery.  First  he  showed  us  the  apartments  of  the  Prelate, 
now  absent.  There  were  thirty  fine  rooms,  with  a  chapel,  where  he 
says  his  private  masses  daily,  a  concert-room,  etc.,  all  richly  fur- 
nished, and  in  the  nicest  order.  Then  we  went  through  the  guest- 
chambers,  or  a  part  of  them,  for  there  were  no  less  than  sixty  in  all ; 
many  of  them,  like  those  we  occupied,  opening  into  a  beautiful  clois- 
ter, paved  with  marble,  and  nine  hundred  feet  long,  and  all.  of  them 
comfortably  furnished.  We  went  to  the  library,  a  grand  room  al- 
most entirely  of  marble,  about  sixty  feet  high,  with  20,000  volumes, 
where  the  librarian  was  ready  to  receive  us  most  civilly  ;  and  to  the 
church,  a  fine  piece  of  architecture  entirely  of  marble,  and  capable  of 
holding  five  or  six  thousand  persons. 

*  In  fact,  Mr.  Ticknor  was  thought,  in  Vienna,  to  be  over-scrupnlous,  when 
he  insisted  on  taking  letters  to  this  and  the  two  other  monasteries  which  he 
afterwards  visited  ;  for  the  readiness  of  these  communities  to  entertain  guests 
was  asserted  to  be  beyond  question. 


M.  44.]  MOLK.  23 

It  was  now  nearly  dinner-time,  and  we  returned  to  our  ruuins  to 
rest At  twelve  o'clock  the  kind  old  guest-master  and  the  li- 
brarian came  for  us,  and  we  went  with  them  to  the  refectory  of  the 
dignitaries  of  the  monastery,  another  enormous  room,  fifty  or  sixty 
feet  high,  and  of  marble,  where  about  a  dozen  persons  dined.  The 
order  is  Benedictine,  and  there  was  no  ceremony.  As  we  approached 
the  table,  all  stopped  to  ask  silently  a  blessing,  each  for  himself.  We 
then  sat  down  to  a  simple,  good  dinner  of  five  or  six  courses,  with  a 
bottle  of  wine  for  each  person.  After  it  was  over  and  we  rose,  all 
paused  an  instant  to  return  thanks,  the  monks  crossed  themselves, 
and  we  bowed  and  courtesied  all  round. 

The  monks  were  pleasant  at  dinner,  and  intelligent.  Keiblinger, 
the  librarian,  a  young  man  of  thirty-five,  and  professor  in  the  Theo- 
logical Institution  connected  with  the  monastery,  seemed  to  have  a 
good  deal  of  acuteness  and  learning ;  but  in  general  they  did  not 
appear  to  me  like  scholars. 

There  are  eighty-four  of  them  in  all.  Forty  priests  dine  in  a  hall 
bv  themselves  :  the  twelve  who  hold  office  dine  where  we  were  to- 
day  ;  the  rest  are  employed  as  priests,  in  parishes  connected  with  the 
monastery.  They  have  a  gymnasium,  where  a  considerable  number 
of  young  men  are  instructed  without  pay,  and  forty-eight  are  sup- 
ported entirely.  About  three  hundred  persons  sleep  and  are  nour- 
ished under  their  roof,  and  in  the  autumn  their  sixty  guest-chambers 
are  often  filled.  The  whole  establishment,  therefore,  belongs  to  that 
magnificent  class  of  which  few  now  remain  in  any  country. 

After  dinner  I  went  again  to  the  library,  and  saw  many  rich  and 
curious  manuscripts,  and  books  of  the  first  age  of  printing.  There 
was  no  want,  either,  of  modern  works  nor  of  Protestant  books  ;  and 
yet  the  library  was  not  like  the  library  of  a  living,  active,  efficient 
institution,  but  seemed,  like  the  monastery  itself,  to  belong  to  an- 
other state  of  society. 

We  went,  too,  to  see  their  pictures,  which  were  little  worth  the 
trouble,  and  their  collections  in  natural  history,  which  were  small ;  but 
their  garden  is  fine,  and,  like  the  front  of  the  monastery,  commands 
grand  views  up  and  down  the  Danube,  which  spreads  out  beneath  in 
all  its  beauty  and  power,  and  over  to  the  other  shore,  where  are  the 
picturesque  ruins  of  the  old  castle  of  Waideneck,  churches,  villages, 
and  monasteries,  scattered  frequent  through  a  fertile  land,  the  cas- 
tles of  Liibereck  and  Schonbichl  still  proudly  preserved,  and  a  range 
of  solemn  mountains  swelling  up  to  the  horizon  and  bounding  the 
whole.    But  the  monks  of  old  always  chose  well  the  sites  for  their 


24  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1836. 

monasteries,  and  the  preservation  of  an  establishment  of  this  sort 
in  all  its  stateliness  and  wealth  shows  how  little  their  power  is  broken 
down  as  yet  in  "  old  Austria,"  as  Prince  Metternich  calls  it.  It  waf^ 
a  very  interesting  and  a  very  strange  sight  to  us,  Protestants  and 
Puritans. 

July  4.  — ....  Our  next  purpose  was  to  pass  the  night  at  the 
monastery  of  St.  Florian,  another  of  the  vast  Benedictine  establish- 
ments, which  has  existed  here  certainly  since  1071,  and  which  still 
remains  in  undiminished  splendor.  They  have  documents  that  go 
back  to  819,  and  claim  to  have  been  founded  in  455.  At  any  rate, 
like  all  the  other  large  and  old  monasteries  in  this  part  of  Europe, 
it  goes  back  to  a  period  earlier  than  the  building  of  the  cities,  which 
cannot  be  put  farther  back  than  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century.  It 
is  to  this  period,  when  the  influence  of  the  monks  was  so  valuable  and 
beneficent,  when  they  protected  the  poor  peasantry  from  the  lords 
of  the  numberless  castles  and  robber's-nests,  —  whose  picturesque 
ruins  we  find  everywhere,  —  and  when  they  introduced  agriculture 
and  the  arts  of  civilized  life,  that  they  trace  their  great  possessions 
and  the  main  elements  of  the  influence  they  have  ever  since  exer- 
cised.    I  speak  exclusively  of  South  German}^ 

It  is  less  than  an  hour's  drive  to  the  westward  of  Enns,  and  the 
beautiful  cultivation  through  which  we  jiassed  spoke  well  both  of 
the  influence  and  the  example  of  the  monks  as  agriculturists.  We 
saw,  too,  an  imj^osing  castle  with  four  massive  towers,  which  we 
afterwards  learnt  had  been  built  by  the  nephew  of  Tilly,  the  great 
general  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War  ;  but  which,  since  1763,  has  been 
owned  by  the  monks,  who  obtained  it  by  purchase. 

The  monastery  itself  is  larger  even  than  the  one  at  jMolk,  and 
more  regularly  built  by  the  same  architect,  having  been  finished  in 
1745.  It  stands  on  a  hillside  with  a  village  below  it,  and  commands 
a  view  of  one  of  the  most  fertile  and  beautiful  vallevs  I  ever  be- 
held,  closed  up  by  mountains  beyond  ;  itself  a  most  grand  and 
imposing  pile  of  architecture  in  the  Italian  style  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  which  makes  the  neighboring  castle  look  like  a  structure 
of  very  moderate  size. 

We  were  received,  as  we  were  at  Molk,  at  the  bottom  of  the  grand 
marble  staircase,  —  to  the  foot  of  which  we  drove  under  a  massive 
portal,  —  by  a  servant  who  showed  us  at  once  to  a  suite  of  four  rooms, 
which  we  were  desired  to  regard  as  our  o^\ti,  and  to  order  such  re- 
freshments as  we  might  need.  The  Prelate,  Arneth,  to  whom  we 
had  letters,  was  absent,  ....  but  would   be  back  in  the  evening. 


^.44.]  ST.   FLORIAN.  25 

Meanwhile,  the  next  in  office,  the  Aljbot,  —  a  round  easy  person, 
nearly  seventy  years  old,  who  seemed  to  think  everything  in  his 
monastery  admirable  and  wonderful, — with  another  monk  about 
forty,  —  who  seemed  to  be  the  wit  of  the  brotherhood,  and  to  be 
willing  to  make  us  merry  even  with  the  Abbot  and  his  excessive 
fancy  for  all  that  belonged  to  them,  —  made  their  appearance  and 
offered  to  do  the  honors  of  the  establishment  to  us. 

We  went  first  to  their  collection  of  pictures,  which  filled  five  or  six 
rooms,  but  where  only  a  few  had  any  merit  at  all,  and  then  to  a 
collection  of  engravings  hung  round  the  walls  of  several  more  rooms, 
which  were  very  good,  and  among  which  1  noticed  an  engraving  of 
the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  where,  to  the  great  astonishment  of  the 
monks,  I  pointed  out  the  commander  on  our  side  dressed  like  a 
farmer.  But  the  distances  are  so  great  in  these  enormous  convents, 
and  the  walks  through  their  unending  cloisters,  over  polished  mar- 
ble, so  hard,  that  we  were  glad  to  retire  to  our  rooms  and  rest. 

Supper,  I  found,  had  been  ordered  for  us  in  the  Prelate's  apart- 
ments, ....  but  I  begged  the  Abbot  to  let  Mr.  Sparmann  and 
myself  join  them  iii  conventu,  to  which  he  readily  agreed,  the  wdtty 
brother  adding  that  it  would  be  merrier  there.  So  in  a  few  moments 
we  went  to  supper.  I  thought  we  should  never  get  there.  We 
passed  from  one  grand  arched  cloister  to  another,  until,  notwithstand- 
ing interruptions  from  talking  with  the  monks,  I  counted  above 
eleven  hundred  steps.  I  suppose,  in  fact,  we  went  half  a  mile,  at 
least. 

At  last  we  found  a  lofty  marble  hall,  at  the  upper  end  of  which 
was  a  billiard-table,  where  Mr.  Sparmann  was  playing  wdth  one  of 
the  monks,  while  down  the  middle  was  the  supper-table. 

Eighteen  monks  were  soon  gathered  round  it,  the  w'hole  number 
that  inhabits  this  wdde  pile.  There  are  eighty-nine  in  all,  but  many 
serve  in  parishes,  and  the  rest  are  employed  as  teachers  in  a  large 
gymnasium,  which  is  supported  by  the  monastery,  in  Linz.  Two 
of  the  monks  I  saw  to-night  are  interesting  men,  —  Stiltz,  the  libra- 
rian, a  young  man  who  seems  full  of  zeal  for  knowledge  ;  and  Kurtz, 
an  old,  very  modest  man,  whose  works  on  the  history  of  Austria, 
amounting  to  sixteen  or  eighteen  octavos,  are  valued  throughout 
Germany  as  the  best  on  the  subject.  I  talked  a  good  deal  with 
him,  ....  walked  with  him  in  the  garden,  and  w^ent  with  him  to 
his  room,  w^hich  was  large,  every  w^ay  comfortable,  rather  nicely  fur- 
nished, and  hung  round  with   good   engravings They  have 

about  an  hundred  rooms  for  guests. 

VOL.  11.  2 


26  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1836. 

July  5.  —  We  breakfasted  in  our  own  rooms As  the  monks 

are  priests,  who  must  say  their  masses  every  morning,  ....  they  all 
breakfast  separately.  AMien  it  was  over  with  us,  Kurtz,  Stiltz,  and 
one  or  two  other  monks  came  and  showed  us  the  Library.  It  consists 
of  about  fifty  thousand  volmnes,  and  is  very  respectable  from  its 
composition.  In  literary  history  it  is  quite  remarkable,  and  there  is 
an  admirable  room  full  of  incunabula.  I  saw,  too,  a  great  deal,  both 
of  elegant  literature  and  of  Protestant  learning,  which  could  hardly 
be  expected  in  a  convent ;  and  there  was  a  tone  in  the  conversation 
of  the  monks  much  freer  than  would  seem  to  be  appropriate  to  their 
condition.  The  political  atmosphere,  both  here  and  at  Molk,  was 
quite  liberal,  at  least  round  some  of  the  monks. 

We  saw  their  collections  in  natural  history,  mineralogy,  etc.,  which 
were  of  moderate  value,  but  two  parts  of  the  establishment  surprised 
me  very  much.  One  was  a  suite  of  rooms,  about  twenty  or  twenty- 
five  in  number,  called  the  Kaiser-Zimmer,  —  Imperial  Rooms, — which 
were  prepared  for  the  Emperor,  Charles  YI.,  who  sent  the  monks 
word,  when  their  convent  was  building,  a  century  ago,  that  he  would 
come  and  see  them  every  year,  and  hunt  in  their  woods,  if  they 
would  fit  up  apartments  worthy  of  him.  They  did  so,  of  course ; 
for,  as  one  of  the  monks  said,  such  imperial  hints  were  like  "  requests 
in  full  armor,"  and  the  Emperor  and  Prince  Eugene  used  to  come, 
and  live  upon  the  monks  several  weeks  every  autumn,  which  they 
found  a  very  burdensome  honor  for  their  revenues.  The  rooms  are 
now,  of  course,  neglected,  but  they  are  still  princely  and  grand  ;  and 
the  convent  might,  in  all  respects,  easily  be  put  in  order  to  receive  an 
emperor  and  his  court,  as  in  a  vast  palace.  The  other  part  of  the 
monastery  that  surprised  me  was  the  church.  Its  size,  its  marbles, 
its  rich  but  not  overburdened  ornaments,  and  its  free,  unincumbered 
architecture,  reminded  me  of  the  magnificent  churches  at  Venice. 
It  will. hold  eight  thousand  people,  and  the  whole  country  round 
so  throng  here,  at  the  feast  of  St.  Florian  and  several  other  great 
festivals,  that  it  is  filled. 

As  we  came  back  from  the  church  I  met  a  messenger  from  the 
Prelate,  who  sent  his  compliments,  to  say  he  would  make  me  a  visit, 
if  I  were  disengaged.  It  seemed  more  suitable  for  me  to  go  to  him, 
and  I  went  at  once.     I  found  him  living  in  a  suite  of  twenty  or  thirty 

rooms There  was  some  state   about  him,  a  doorkeeper  and 

two  or  three  monks  in  attendance,  the  rooms  very  noble.  He  him- 
self seemed  about  fifty,  with  the  air  and  manners  of  the  world,  and 
agreeable  and  rather  courtly  conversation.     He  regretted  that  he  was 


JE.  44.]  KREMSMiJNSTER.  27 


not  at  home  last  evening  to  receive  us,  hoped  we  had  been  comfort- 
able, and  so  on  ;  and  it  was  plain  he  did  not  wish  to  be  thought  a 
mere  monk.  When  I  left  him,  the  can-iage  was  already  announced. 
We  went  down  the  magnificent  marble  staircase  ;  .  .  .  .  the  venerable 
Kurtz,  Stiltz,  and  two  or  three  other  monks  followed  us  to  the  bot- 
tom ;  we  found  several  more  waiting,  who  had  brought  flowers  for 
Mrs.  T.  and  the  chikben  ;  and  we  drove  away  with  their  hearty  good 
wishes  following  us. 

Our  journey  during  the  forenoon  was  only  twelve  or  fourteen  miles, 
to  Steyer,  through  most  agreeable  by-roads  and  a  country  not  only 
much  broken  and  diversified,  but  with  extensive  prospects,  closed  up 

by  the  Stvrian  Molmtains We  remained  there  only  long  enough 

to  dine,  and  then,  through  an  uncommonly  rich,  well-cultivated  coun- 
try, we  came  to  Kremsmiinster,  another  grand  Benedictine  monastery, 
larger  even  than  either  of  the  others  we  had  seen.  We  found  it  3  ^  "J 
standing  on  a  hillside,  with  its  little  village,  as  usual,  gathered  under 
its  protection,  the  pretty,  rapid  stream  of  the  Krems  brawling  below, 
and  a  wide,  rich  valley  running  up  beyond,  until  it  is  gi-andly  closed 
up  by  snow-clad  mountains,  grouped  together  in  very  picturesque 
forms. 

We  drove  through  a  part  of  the  irregular  buildings  that  compose 
the  wide  extent  of  the  monastery,  and  crossmg  two  large  courts,  — 
where  we  found  on  all  sides  proofs  that  it  was  a  gymnasium  as  well  as 
a  convent,  —  were  brought  to  the  part  inhabited  by  the  Prelate.  We 
were  carried  at  once  to  his  apartments,  and  found  him  an  old  man, 
nearly  seventy,  or  quite  seventy  years  old,  broken  with  age,  and  talk- 
ing so  imperfectly,  from  want  of  teeth,  that  he  could  not  be  readily 
understood.  He  received  us  very  kindly,  and  the  proper  officer  hav- 
ing made  his  appearance,  we  were  asked  how  many  rooms  we  needed, 
and  were  immediately  shown  to  a  suite  of  five  excellent  ones,  large 
enough  to  make  a  dozen  such  as  are  used  and  built  nowadays.  After 
we  had  refreshed  ourselves,  we  were  invited  to  see  the  establishment. 
It  dates  from  770,  but  the  buildings  have  been  erected  at  different 
times,  chiefly  between  1300  and  1690,  and  are  spread  very  irregularly 
over  a  wide  space  of  ground.  The  number  of  monks  is  eighty-four, 
forty  of  whom  reside  in  the  house,  and  the  rest  are  priests  in  parishes. 
The  monastery  has,  besides,  a  gymnasium,  where  above  two  hundred 
and  fifty  young  men  are  in  a  constant  course  of  education,  gratis,  fifty 
of  whom  are  entirely  supported  by  the  Emperor,  and  a  part  of  the 
rest  by  the  funds  of  the  institution.  We  went  first  to  the  church. 
It  was  originally  of  Gothic  architecture,  as  its  proportions  still  show, 


28  '  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S36. 


but  about  one  bunclred  and  thirty  or  one  hundred  and  forty  years  ago 
it  was  changed,  according  to  the  perverse  fashion  of  the  times,  into  an 
Italian-looking  structure,  and  nearly  spoilt.  It  will  hold  about  two 
thousand  persons.  From  the  church  we  were  carried  to  see  a  large 
court  in  which  were  five  enormous  stone  reservoirs  of  water,  supplied 
by  living  fountains  and  filled  with  some  thousands  of  fish,  —  trout, 
and  all  sorts  of  fresh- water  fish,  —  who  were  disporting  themselves 
there,  and  fed  for  the  table  of  the  monastery.  It  was  a  pretty  sight, 
and  a  very  extraordinary  one,  considering  the  amount  of  ground  cov- 
ered by  this  truly  monastic  luxury,  and  the  number  of  fish  it  con- 
tained. From  this  court  we  passed  into  the  garden,  whose  formal 
walks  often  gave  us  fine  views  of  the  picturesque  country  about  us, 

and  of  the  Styrian  Mountains Their  greenhouses  were  very 

good,  and  the  conservatory  for  fig-trees  very  ample. 

But  it  was  now  supper-time,  and  we  were  led  to  the  Prelate's  apart- 
ments, where  we  found  Professor  Heinrich,  to  whom  we  had  brought 
letters,  and  who,  as  the  head  of  the  part  devoted  to  education,  and 
having  the  especial  oversight  of  the  Emperor's  scholars,  is  a  very 
eSicient  person  in  the  monastery.  He  is  about  forty  years  old,  and 
evidently  a  man  of  an  active,  vigilant  mind.  Immediately  after  we 
arrived  in  the  Prelate's  parlor,  "  the  Master  of  the  Kitchen,"  a  round, 
fat,  burly  old  monk,  came  in,  and  very  ceremoniously  announced  that 
supper  was  ready.  The  Prelate  desired  Mrs.  T.  to  follow  the  rubicund 
official,  and  then,  preceding  the  rest  of  us,  we  all  rather  solemnly 
marched  to  the  supper,  which  we  found  served  in  an  enormous  hall 
of  marble,  about  sixty  feet  high  and  wide,  and  long  in  proportion. 
As  we  entered  it,  I  perceived  the  other  ofiicials  of  the  monastery 
standing  together  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  hall.  The  Prelate  and 
our  party  bowed  to  them,  and  the  two  parties  advanced,  in  parallel 
lines,  up  the  difi"erent  sides  of  the  hall,  till  we  had  traversed  about 
one  half  of  it.  There  we  all  stopped,  and  each  asked  a  silent  bless- 
ing, the  monks  crossed  themselves,  we  bowed  all  round,  and  then 
traversing  the  rest  of  the  hall  Were  arranged  at  table,  on  each  side  of 
the  Prelate,  rather  ceremoniously.  We  were  twelve  in  all,  and  seemed 
lost  in  the  vast  and  splendid  hall.  The  monks  were  of  course  among 
the  elders,  for  they  hold  the  offices  of  the  monastery,  but  they  were 
ordinary,  dull-looking  persons  in  general.  The  supper  consisted  of 
five  courses,  including  soup,  and  was  only  moderately  good  ;  but  there 
was  a  bottle  of  good  wine  for  each,  which  the  monks  in  general  fin- 
ished. 

There  was  a  beautiful  ornament  to   the  table,  a  silver-gilt  oval 


M.  44.]  BENEDICTINE   MONASTERIES.  29 

vase,  about  two  feet  and  a  lialt"  long  [sunk  in  the  table],  with  two 
graceful  dolphins  rising  in  the  middle  of  it,  who  spo^ited  water  into 
the  vase,  where  some  goldtish  seemed  to  make  themselves  very  happy. 
It  was  the  prettiest  centre-ornament  to  a  table  that  I  ever  saw,  and 
it  occupied  not  a  little  of  our  attention,  for  the  monks  liked  to  have 
it  noticed. 

An  abundance  of  pure,  delicious  water  is  one  of  the  luxuries  and 
beauties  of  this  grand  monastery,  in  different  parts  of  which  they 
have  forty  fountains,  running  to  waste.  AVhen  supper  was  over  .... 
we  left  the  hall  with  ceremonies  similar  to  those  by  which  we  entered 
it.  I  finished  the  evening  by  enjoying  the  sunset  and  twilight  views 
of  the  valley  and  the  mountains,  in  a  long  walk  with  Professor  Hein- 

rich,  on  the  hill  overlooking  the  monastery Everybody  who 

has  once  seen  them  knows  how  beautiful  are  such  mountains  in  the 
receding  twilight,  reflecting  it  back  with  ever- varying  tints  from  the 
purple  rocks  and  glittering  snows,  while  the  rich  valleys  below  are 
already  grown  dim  or  become  entirely  lost  in  the  gray  darkness. 

Jidij  6.  —  We  are  so  comfortably  off  and  so  kindly  treated  that  w^e 

have  determined  to  stay  till  to-morrow Two  young  monks, 

one  of  them  a  rather  smart,  jaunty  young  man  of  twenty-seven,  were 
deputed  by  the  prior  to  show  me  whatever  I  desired  to  see.  I  went 
with  them,  therefore,  to  the  library,  which  contains  about  thirty  thou- 
sand volumes,  but  has  a  very  antiquated  and  monastic  look  ;  there 
are  also  fifteen  hundred  manuscripts,  incunabula,  etc.  In  the  farm- 
ing establishment  I  saw  forty  cows,  who  are  never  allowed  to  leave 
their  stalls,  eating  grass  out  of  marble  mangers  ;  ....  a  neat,  dark 
dairy,  with  running  w^ater  ;  .  .  .  .  another  large  reservoir  full  of  a 
sort  of  large  salmon  and  fresh-water  lobsters  ;  in  short,  whatever 
should  belong  to  the  luxury  or  comfort  of  such  an  establishment, 
when  arranged  on  the  grandest  scale.  We  dined  with  the  Prelate,  and 
after  dinner  were  carried  through  a  long  series  of  rooms  —  covered 
with  pictures,  generally  poor,  and  engravings,  some  of  which,  by 
Albert  Diirer,  were  very  curious  —  to  his  saloon,  where  we  had  coff'ee. 
....  When  this  was  over,  we  were  carried  to  the  observatory,  a 
heavy,  imposing  building,  erected  on  the  solid  rock,  nine  stories,  and 
nearly  two  hundred  feet  high  ;  .  .  .  .  the  upper  part  is  filled  with 
astronomical  instruments,  some  of  which,  by  Frauenhofer,  are  proba- 
bly good The  rest  of  the  afternoon  I  passed  in  talking  with 

the  monks,  and  in  visiting  that  part  of  the  establishment  devoted  to 
education,  which  seemed  very  well  managed,  and  has  its  refectory, 
kitchens,  church,  etc.,  apart.     I  supped  with  the  Prelate,  and  went  to 


30  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

bed  early,  quite  fatigued  with  walking  over  this  wilderness  of  irregu- 
lar buildings,  which,  if  not  in  as  good  taste  as  those  of  Molk  or  St. 
Florian,  have  a  massive  grandeur  about  them  greater  than  that  of 
either  of  those  establishments,  large  as  they  are. 

Professor  Heinrich  is  altogether  the  most  acute,  intelligent,  and 
learned  person  I  found  among  the  monks  here.  He  is  liberal  in  his 
politics,  and  knows  a  good  deal  about  England  and  America.  I  was 
quite  surprised,  for  instance,  to  find  that  he  understood  very  well  the 

whole  question  of  the  United  States  Bank The  young  monk 

Eiislhuber,  who  has  lately  passed  a  couple  of  years  in  Vienna,  at  the 

observatory  there,  ....  is  quite  fire-new  in  all  his  notions 

In  all  three  of  these  monasteries,  as  well  as  in  the  two  or  three  monks 
I  saw  at  Heiligenkreuz,  I  have  found  a  liberal  and  even  republican 
tone  the  prevalent  one  ;  great  admiration  of  America,  etc. 

July  7.  —  After  breakfast  this  morning  we  took  leave  of  the  kind, 
but  rather  dull  old  Prelate,  and  were  followed  to  our  carriage  by  the 
monks  with  all  sorts  of  good  wishes.  The  boys  of  the  gymnasium, 
too,  were  out  in  great  numbers  to  see  off  the  strangers  who  had  come 
from  so  far,  and,  by  the  time  we  had  passed  the  outer  court,  we  had 
been  saluted  by  nearly  the  whole  rank  and  file  of  the  establishment. 

Until  I  visited  these  three  great  monasteries,  I  did  not  suppose  that 
any  so  large,  so  rich,  and  so  stately  could  be  found  still  remaining 
in  Christendom.  But  the  Benedictines  are  yet  strong  in  their  origi- 
nal resources  and  influence  throughout  Austria  ;  and  these,  with  the 

Convent  of  Admont,  constitute  the  hiding  of  their  power The 

Benedictines  have  always  been  the  most  respectable,  the  most  learned, 
the  most  beneficent,  of  all  the  orders  of  monks  ;  and  it  was  for  this 
reason  that  they  escaped  almost  entirelj^  when  Joseph  II.  laid  so 
heavv  a  hand  on  the  monasteries  of  Austria  generallv,  in  the  latter 
part  of  the  last  century.  What  is  to  become  of  them  hereafter,  it  is 
difficult  to  tell.  They  do  not  belong  to  the  present  state  of  things 
anywhere,  not  even  in  "old  Austria."* 

The  next  four  weeks  were  occupied  by  a  very  interesting 
journey  through  the  valleys  of  Upper  Austria,  which  is  described 
■with  great  animation  in  the  Journal.  After  passing  two  clays  on 
the  beautiful  Gmunden  See,  the  party  arrived  at  Ischl  on  the 
10th  of  July,  and  made  their  headquarters  there  until  the  16th. 

*  These  monasteries  are  still  mentioned  in  guide-books,  etc.,  as  being  grand 
establishments,  on  a  magnificent  scale. 


M.  44.]  GOSAUSEE.  31 

Isclil  was  not  the  fashionable  watering-place  it  has  since  become, 
and  this  whole  journey  from  Meuna  to  Munich  was  then  so 
rarely  made,  that  its  beauties  were  almost  unknown,  except  to 
Germans.  The  facilities  and  comforts  of  travelling  were  pro- 
portionately small,  but  there  was  compensation,  not  only  in  the 
wonderful  scenery,  but  in  the  freedom  from  the  presence  of 
tourists. 

July  12.  —  It  has  been  a  perfectly  clear  and  beautiful  day,  and  we 
have  used  it  to  make  an  excursion  of  about  fifteen  miles  into  the 
mountains,  to  see  the  valley  and  lake  of  Gosau,  and  the  Dachstein  or 

Thorstein  Mouutain,  with  its  glacier At  first  we  followed  the 

Traun  to  the  point  where  it  comes  out  of  the  beautiful  lake  of  Hall- 
stadt,  along  which  we  drove  for  a  mile,  and  then  turned  into  the  wild 
valley  of  the  Gosau,  a  small  mountain  stream  which  came  rushing 
down  between  opposing  rocks  that  rose,  generally,  on  each  side  some 
hundred  feet,  and  sometimes  one  or  two  thousand  feet  above  our 
heads.  Through  this  narrow  pass  we  continued  to  ascend  for  about 
an  hour,  with  the  Gosau  tumbling  and  foaming  by  our  side,  until  at 
last  the  whole  spread  out  into  a  rich  and  beautifid  valley,  containing 

thirteen  hundred  inhabitants,  nearly  all  Protestants We  stopped 

at  a  sort  of  rude  inn,  kept  by  an  old  woman  who  reminded  us  of  Meg 
Merrilies,  ....  and  then  traversing  the  whole  of  this  fertile  valley, 
came  to  where  it  is  closed  up  by  the  mountain,  and  where  the  road 
finally  ceases.  Here  we  left  our  caleche,  and,  taking  a  couple  of  chairs 
with  eight  men  to  carry  us,  began  to  ascend  the  mountain.  The 
views  were  very  grand.  As  we  rose  we  passed  round  a  sort  of  prom- 
ontory in  the  hills,  and  then  into  a  gorge  where  the  Donner  Kegel,  or 
Tliunderpeaks,  seemed  absolutely  to  overhang  our  heads  at  the  height 
of  two  or  three  thousand  feet ;  and  still  clinging  to  the  wild  torrent 
of  the  Gosau,  at  the  end  of  an  hour  we  reached  the  lake  from  which 
it  flows.  It  is  about  a  mile  long,  and  a  quarter  of  a  mile  wide,  shut 
in  by  mountains  on  all  sides,  of  which  the  Dachstein  rose  directly  in 
front  of  us,  9,448  feet  above  the  ocean,  with  a  glacier  about  three 
miles  long  distinctly  before  us,  and  so  near  that  its  waters  keep  the 
lake  almost  do^vn  to  the  freezing-point.  It  is  a  very  grand  and  very 
picturesque  view 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  the  Ischl  theatre,  .  .  .  .where  the  act- 
ing was  quite  as  bad  as  I  expected  to  find  it  ;  but  I  went  merely 
because  I  saw  a  piece  translated  from  the  Spanish  announced,  More- 
to's  Desden  con  el  Desden^  under  the  name  of  Die  Prinzessin  Diana, 


32  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

and  I  enjoyed  it  a  good  deal,  because  the  original  was  quite  familiar 
to  me. 

July  14.  —  ....  We  had  another  beautiful  day  to-day,  which  we 
used  for  another  excursion  into  the  mountains,  visiting  the  lake  and 

town  of  Hallstadt,  and  the  waterfall  of  Waldbach-Strupj) It  is 

a  more  picturesque  lake  than  Gmunden,  about  four  and  a  half  Eng- 
lish miles  long  and  one  mile  wide,  surrounded  by  mountains  that  are 
as  admirably  grouped  for  effect  as  can  well  be  imagined,  and  in  which 
it  lies  so  deeply  imbedded  that  during  four  months  in  the  year  not  a 
ray  of  the  sun  falls  upon  the  greater  part  of  it,  or  upon  the  village  on 

its  border We  did  not  stop  at  the  village,  except  to  order  a 

cold  dinner  to  be  sent  up  the  mountain,  and  then  followed  the  course 
of  the  mountain  torrent  as  our  only  guide. 

It  is  hardly  possible  that  a  stream  can  be  more  beautiful  than  it  is, 
as  it  comes  rushing  and  leaping  down  in  every  form  of  torrent  and 
cascade,  over  rocks  covered  with  the  richest  moss,  and  under  the  shade 
of  venerable  beeches  and  oaks  ;  now  of  the  deep,  emerald  green,  given 
to  it  by  the  glacier  from  which  it  springs,  and  now  as  white  as  foam 
and  sunshine  can  make  it.  We  lounged  by  its  banks  for  an  hour,  re- 
freshed in  the  heat  of  the  day  by  its  cool  waters,  whose  temperature 
is  so  low  that  no  fishes  can  live  in  them,  and  then  toiled  for  another 
half-hour  up  the  precipitous  sides  of  the  mountain,  until,  coming  sud- 
denly upon  the  verge  of  a  gulf,  we  saw  the  torrent,  fresh  from  its  icy 
source,  bursting  its  way  through  the  mountain- wall  opposite,  and  fall- 
ing with  tremendous  uproar  into  the  abyss  nearly  a  hundred  feet 
below.  It  was  a  grand  spectacle,  and  deserves  as  truly  to  be  called 
picturesque  as  anything  of  the  sort  I  have  ever  seen.     We  sat  down 

and  enjoyed  it  at  our  leisure In  about  two  hours  our  dinner 

was  brought.  A  kind  old  woodcutter  went  down  to  the  torrent  and 
fetched  us  up  some  water,  which  effectually  cooled  our  wme,  and  we 
enjoyed  a  delicious  meal,  resting  on  the  bank  of  grass  under  the  shad- 
owing trees,  and  directly  in  front  of  the  waterfall 

At  St.  Wolfgang,  Mr.  Ticknor  says,  ''  In  the  court  of  the 
church  we  saw  something  really  interesting,  a  very  beautiful  and 
graceful  fountain,  cast  in  lead,  with  admirable  designs  by  Albert 
Dlirer,  of  whose  authenticity  I  did  not  doubt,  both  on  account 
of  their  beauty,  and  because  his  initials  and  the  date,  1515, 
were  cast  with  the  work." 

After  three  days  at  Salzburg,  on  whose  various  beauties,  in- 
terests, and  antiquities  Mr.  Ticknor  dwells  at  length,  we  find  the 


^.  44.]  KUNIGSEE.  33 

following  description   of  an   excursion  from  Lerchtesgarden  to        V 
Kcinigsee  and  Obersee  :  — 

July  20.  —  The  lake  [Kunigsee]  was  as  smooth  as  glass  ;  the  moun- 
tains—  which  on  one  side  do  not  leave  a  foothold  for  the  chamois, 
and  on  the  other  only  an  obscure  hunter's  path,  but  no  habitation  for 
man  —  rose  in  grand  and  picturesque  forms  around  us  ;  now  and  then 
a  cascade  came  rushiug  down  the  rock  to  join  the  still  waters  below  ; 
and  twice,  graceful  islands  broke  their  pure,  smooth  expanse.  After 
rowing  an  hour  and  a  quarter  we  came  to  a  hunting-lodge  of  the  King 
of  Bavaria,*  built  on  a  narrow  strip  of  alluvial  earth,  which  here 
stretches  out  into  the  lake.  We  landed  and  had  some  delicious  fish 
for  dinner,  called  saihlinge,  much  like  our  trout.  The  row  back  in 
the  shadow^s  of  the  afternoon,  with  the  music  of  the  Hallein  miners 
before  us,t  was  delightful,  and  the  approach  to  the  gentle,  cultivated 
valley  beyond,  dressed  in  the  most  brilliant  green  and  lighted  by  the 
descending  sun,  was  as  beautiful  as  anything  of  the  sort  well  can  be. 

July  22.  —  ....  After  passing  Lend  we  left  the  Salzach,  and, 
joining  the  Ache,  plunged  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  dark  recesses 
of  the  mountains.  As  we  rose  we  came  to  the  Klam-Strasse,  a  gorge 
about  two  miles  long,  where  the  Ache  has  forced  for  itself  so  narrow 
a  passage  that  while  it  boils  and  foams  two  or  three  hundred  feet 
below,  the  perpendicular  rocks  above  afford  no  shelf  for  the  road  in 
many  places,  except  such  as  is  cut  into  their  sides  or  carried  on  stone 
arches  and  long  wooden  bridges  from  one  cliff  to  another.  It  is  said 
to  be  the  most  fearful  of  all  the  mountain  passes  in  Central  Europe, 
and  I  can  readily  believe  it ;  for,  though  it  is  perfectly  safe,  it  is  not 
possible,  I  apprehend,  to  go  through  it  without  some  sensation  of 
insecurity. 

Until  the  first  of  August  the  travellers  lingered  in  this  beauti- 
ful country,  including  the  remote  valley  of  Gastein,  closing  their 
excursions  "with  a  few  days  at  ]\Iunich,  amidst  the  results  of  the 

*  Note  by  Mr.  Ticknor  ;  "The  King  comes  here  every  summer  and  hunts. 
Sometimes  he  hunts  chamois,  which  are  then  driven  do^vAm  by  great  numbers 
of  peasants,  from  the  summits  of  the  mountains.  The  Last  hunt  of  this  sort  was 
four  years  ago  [1832],  and  eighty-four  chamois  were  killed.  But  it  is  a  costly 
sport, —  the  forenoon's  frolic  having  been  paid  for  with  12,000  thalers  (9,000 
dollars),  —  and  the  present  King  of  Bavaria  is  too  economical  to  indulge  in  it 
often." 

t  A  party  of  miners  out  for  a  frolic,  with  a  band. 

2*  c 


34  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

recent  patronage  of  art,  by  the  reigning  King,  Ludwig  I.,  whom 
Mr.  Ticknor  had  seen  as  Crown  Prince  in  earlier  days  in  Rome. 
A  letter  to  Mr.  Daveis,  written  some  weeks  afterwards,  gives  a 
concise  summary  of  this  part  of  the  summer's  travels. 

....  From  Vienna  we  went  up  the  Danube  into  Upper  Austria, 
Salzburg,   etc.,   on  the  whole  the  loveliest  and  most  picturesque, 

though  not  the  grandest  comitry  I  have  yet  seen At  length, 

after  a  month  spent  so  delightfully  among  the  valleys  and  lakes,  and 
surrounded  with  the  snow-clad  mountains  of  Upper  Austria,  we 
turned  to  Munich.  There  we  passed  a  week,  which  was  quite  filled 
with  visits  to  the  many  fine  buildings  erected  by  the  present  King  of 
Bavaria,  and  to  the  numberless  fresco-paintings  with  which  he  has 
covered  their  walls.  The  Glyptothek  —  an  afi'ected  name  for  a  statue- 
gallery  —  is,  on  the  whole,  the  most  beautiful,  merely  beautiful  build- 
hig  I  ever  saw  ;  and  there  is  a  school  of  painting  there,  which,  for  the 
wideness  and  boldness  of  its  range,  and  the  number  of  artists  attached 
to  it,  is  a  phenomenon  the  world  has  not  seen  since  the  days  of  Eaf- 
faelle  and  Michael  Angelo.  It  has  already  done  a  great  deal,  and  if  it 
continues  to  thrive  for  forty  or  fifty  years  more,  as  it  has  for  the  last 
twenty,  so  that  there  will  be  time  for  it  to  settle  and  ripen,  to  assume 
its  proper  character  and  reach  its  appropriate  finish,  it  will  produce 
works  that  will  revive  the  great  period  of  the  art.  But  it  seems  to 
me  as  if  the  spirit  of  the  times  were  against  it,  and  as  if  "  an  age  too 
late,"  of  which  Milton  fancied  he  felt  the  influences,  were  indeed  to 
prevent  the  ripening  of  these  magnificent  attempts.  And  perhaps  it 
is  better  it  should  be  so  ;  perhaps  the  world  is  grown  so  old  and  so 
wise,  perhaps  moral  culture  is  so  far  advanced,  that  more  can  be  done 
for  human  nature  than  by  such  costly  patronage  of  the  arts.  At  least, 
in  Bavaria  it  is  obtained  at  much  too  dear  a  cost 

From  Munich  we  intended  to  have  plunged  at  once  into  the  moun- 
tains of  the  Tyrol,  but  that  was  precisely  the  country  that  was  most 
infected  with  the  cholera,  and  a  system  of  cordons  was  at  once  estab- 
lished, that  made  it  out  of  the  question  to  think  of  penetrating  into 
the  Peninsula  on  that  side.     This  sent  us  into  Switzerland,  where  we 

intended  to  have  gone  next  year,  on  leaving  Italy I  think  the 

Jungfrau,  as  seen  from  the  high  pass  of  the  Wengern  Alp,  —  where, 
in  the  solitudes  of  nature,  you  stand,  as  it  were,  in  the  immediate  pres- 
ence of  one  of  the  grandest  and  most  glorious  works  of  God,  —  pro- 
duces more  religious  feelings  and  associations  than  anythmg  I  ever 
witnessed,  which  belonged  to  merely  physical  existence 


M.  45.]  GENERAL  LAHARPE.  35 


Three  days  at  Eerne  gave  Mr.  Ticknor  opportunity  to  see 
Count  Bombelles,  Austrian  Minister  at  Berne,  and  the  Duke  of 
Montebello,  who  had  received  civihties  in  Boston.  "  His  wife," 
he  writes,  "a  niece,  I  beheve,  of  the  late  Lord  Liverpool,  is  one 
of  the  most  beautiful  creatures  I  ever  beheld,  and  there  was  a 
pleasant  party  of  diplomats  and  foreigners  collected  at  his  house, 
from  eight  to  eleven."  Mr.  Ticknor  also  gave  a  day  to  a  visit  to 
Hofwyl,  the  school  of  Mr.  Fellenberg,  which  interested  him  much. 
On  the  2d  of  September  he  writes  at  Lausanne. 

JOURNAL. 

Septemher  2.  — .  .  .  .  It  was  late  before  we  were  established  in 
comfortable  quarters,  ....  but  I  was  desirous  to  see  old  General 
Laharpe,  the  governor  and  tutor  of  the  late  Emperor  Alexander, 
and  the  person  to  whom  that  monarch  owed,  probably,  most  of  the 
good  qualities,  and  more  particularly  most  of  the  liberal  opinions,  for 
which  he  was  at  one  period  of  his  life  somewhat  remarkable  ;  and  I 
therefore  sent  him  my  letter  of  introduction,  and  received  an  imita- 
tion to  visit  him.  I  found  him  eighty-four  years  old,  with  beautifully 
white  hair,  and  the  marks  of  a  fresh  and  well-preserved,  though  truly 
venerable  old  age.  His  wife,  who  is  a  Russian,  seemed  younger,  and 
his  niece,  the  daughter  of  a  brother,  hves  with  them.  His  estab- 
lishment is  such  as  suits  his  age  and  character ;  not  sho■^^y,  but  every 
way  as  large,  comfortable,  and  elegant  as  he  can  desire.  He  received 
me  in  a  suite  of  rooms  forming  his  library  ;  tea  was  served,  and  I 
talked  with  him  about  an  hour.  He  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  con- 
sistent republican,  and  for  the  last  nineteen  years  —  or  since  1817  — 
has  lived  quite  retired  in  his  native  canton  ;  for  which,  in  the  midst 
of  the  great  changes  of  1814-15,  he  did  so  much  by  means  of  his 
personal  influence  with  the  Russian  Emperor,  and  in  whose  political 
affairs  and  moral  unprovement  he  has  ever  since  taken  the  livehest 
uiterest.  His  talk  was  of  past  times.  He  remembered  the  course 
of  our  Revolution  in  America  with  great  distinctness,  and  told  me 
that  he  personally  knew  it  to  be  a  fact,  that  Burr  made  offers  to  the 
French  government  to  divide  the  United  States,  and  bring  the  Valley 
of  the  Mississippi  under  French  control.  Talleyrand  told  me,  in 
1818,  that  the  offer  was  made  to  himself;  and  Laharpe  was  in  Paris, 
and  used  to  see  Burr  occasionally  at  the  time  he  was  there,  but  says 
he  was  never  looked  upon  with  favor  or  respect.     He  told  me,  too, 


36  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOE.  [1836. 


that,  being  at  the  headquarters  of  the  allies  as  they  were  advancing 
upon  Paris,  in  1814,  Lord  Castlereagh,  after  hearing  of  the  occujiation 
of  Eastport  and  the  lower  part  of  Maine,  said,  one  day,  rubbing  his 
hands  with  some  satisfaction,  "We  shall  take  two  or  three  of  the 
United  States  now,  and  I  think  we  shall  be  able  to  keep  them,  too." 

When,  however,  peace  was  made,  in  1815,  and  he  congratulated  his 
lordship  upon  it,  he  seemed  uncommonly  well  pleased. 

Sejotember  3.  —  I  spent  the  evening,  until  quite  late,  with  old  Gen- 
eral Laharpe,  who  had  invited  a  few  people  to  meet  us  ;  .  .  .  .  but 
I  cared  about  nobody  there  except  our  host  and  hostess,  who  received 
us  in  a  fine  suite  of  rooms  over  the  library  suite,  in  the  principal  of 
which  was  a  portrait  of  Alexander,  "given  to  his  friend  and  in- 
structor in  1814,"  as  the  inscription  set  forth.  When  the  company 
was  gone,  the  old  gentleman,  who  had  told  me  about  the  beginning 
of  the  correspondence  and  diplomatic  intercourse  between  Russia  and 
the  United  States,  showed  me  a  letter  of  the  Emperor  to  him.  It 
was  dated  July  7,  1803,  consisted  of  three  sheets,  and  was  very  kind 
and  affectionate.  Laharpe  had  sent  him,  just  before,  one  of  Jeffer- 
son's messages  to  Congress,  which  had  been  furnished  him  by  Joel 
Barlow  at  Paris.     To  this  the  Emperor  replied  :  — 

"  I  should  be  extremely  happy  "  —  I  believe  I  remember  the  words, 
and  that  my  translation  is  literal  —  "if  you  could  put  me  in  more 
direct  relations  with  Erskine  and  Jefferson.  I  should  feel  myself 
greatly  honored  by  it." 

This  Laharpe  showed  to  Barlow,  and  thereupon  Jefferson  wrote 
to  the  Emperor.  A  correspondence  followed,  and  finally  diplomatic 
relations.  Why  are  none  of  the  letters  given  in  the  published  works 
of  Jefferson  1 

Such  talk  of  the  old  gentleman  made  my  evening  interesting,  and 
I  parted  from  him,  after  eleven  o'clock,  with  a  good  deal  of  regret. 
He  is  a  truly  venerable  person,  upon  whom  old  age  sits  with  a  grace- 
fulness that  is  very  rare. 

September  4.  —  We  drove  to-day  on  the  beautiful  banks  of  this 
beautiful  lake,  through  the  rich  fields  and  vineyards  of  the  Pays  de 
Vaud,  and  in  sight  always  of  the  mountains  of  Savoy,  from  Lausanne 

to  Geneva We  stopped  to  see  the  Chateau  at  Coppet,  which 

we  found  a  very  comfortable  and  even  luxurious  establishment  on 
the  inside,  though  of  slight  pretensions  outside.  The  room  —  a  long 
hall  —  that  Mad.  de  Stael  used  for  private  theatricals  was  fitted  up 
by  Auguste  for  a  library,  in  which  he  placed  the  books  both  of 
his  mother  and  his  grandfather,  and  at  one  end  of  it  a  fine  statue  of 


M.  45.]  GENEVA.  37 

Necker,  by  Tieck.  The  family  portraits,  Necker  and  Mad.  Necker, 
the  Baron  and  Mad.  de  Stacil,  Aiiguste,  and  a  bust  of  Mad,  de 
Broglie,  made  in  1815,  are  in  another  room,  and  Auguste's  cabinet 
is  just  as  he  left  it.  The  -whole  was  very  sad  to  me,  the  more  so, 
jierhaps,  because  the  concierge  recollected  me,  and  showed  the  deso- 
lation of  the  place,  and  its  melancholy  memorials,  with  a  good  deal 
of  feeling. 

The  door  of  the  monument  in  which  rest  the  remains  of  Necker 
and  his  wife,  with  Mad.  de  Stael  at  their  feet,  has  been  walled  up. 
Aiiguste  is  buried  on  the  outside,  and  round  the  whole  is  a  high 
wall,  the  gate  to  which  is  not  opened  at  all,  as  both  Necker  and 
Mad.  de  Stael  desired  their  cemetery  might  never  be  made  a  show. 
AVhenever  she  herself  arrived  at  Coppet  she  took  the  key  and  visited 
it  quite  alone,  but  otherwise  the  enclosure  was  never  opened. 

Geneva,  Septemher  6.  — .  .  .  .  Geneva  is  extremely  changed  in  all 
respects,  and  bears  everywhere  the  marks  of  its  increased  wealth. 

....  Society  is  no  less  changed.     Sismondi  is  in  Italy Bon- 

stetten,  the  head  of  all  that  was  literary  and  agreeable,  died  two  years 
ago,  about  ninety  years  old.  Prevost,  one  of  the  coterie  of  Frederic 
the  Great ;  both  the  Pictets  ;  Simond,  the  traveller ;  the  President 
de  la  Eive  ;  Dumont,  etc.,  etc.,  are  all  gonei!  ....  Indeed,  it  is  ap- 
parent that  Geneva  is  becoming  almost  entirely  a  place  of  commerce, 
and  its  prosperity  will  every  day  increase  its  commercial  tendencies. 

Sei^temher  8.  —  I  have  renewed  my  acquaintance  Avith  Mad.  Rilliet, 
Huber,  and  M.  Hess,  the  first  of  whom  is  the  most  intimate  friend 
of  the  De  Staels  remaining  in  Geneva,  and  the  last,  a  man  of  letters 
attached  to  her  household.  They  are  all  that  survive  of  the  delight- 
ful circle  in  which  I  passed  some  time,  most  happily,  luneteen  years  ago. 

At  Geneva,  having  met  Mr.  Horace  Binney  of  Philadelphia, 
travelling  with  a  daughter  and  niece,  the  two  parties  crossed  the 
Simplon  in  company,  and  agreed  to  proceed  southward,  and  to 
undergo,  together,  the  quarantine  that  had  now  been  made  in- 
evitable for  all  persons  wishing  to  reach  Eome  from  the  north. 

Turin,  Seiotemher  29. — We  have  not  been  out  to-day,  except  just 
to  look  about  a  little  ;  but  the  square  before  our  windows,  with  the 
royal  guards  constantly  called  out  to  salute  some  personage  of  conse- 
quence coming  from  the  palace,  the  fine  military  music  at  noon,  the 
show  of  military  in  some  form  or  other  passing  in  all  directions,  and 
the  necessary  thronging  and  bustling  of  the  passengers,  has  amused 


38  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

us  very  mucli.  It  is  one  of  those  picturesque  scenes  which  can  be 
found  only  on  the  Continent,  and  even  there  only  in  a  few  cities 
where,  as  here,  the  sovereign  has  a  great  passion  for  whatever  is  mili- 
tary. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  see  my  old  acquaintance,  Count  Brimetti, 
whom  I  had  known  as  Austrian  Charge  d' Affaires  at  Madrid,  and 
who  is  now  Austrian  Minister  here,  married,  and  with  three  or  four 
children.  He  is  much  changed  in  his  personal  appearance  by  sick- 
ness, but  is  still  the  same  manly,  intellectual  person  I  formerly  knew. 
He  is  just  in  the  horrors  of  moving  his  establishment  to  a  larger 
house,  so  that  I  shall  hardly  see  much  of  him. 

Se^Jtemher  30.  —  This  forenoon  I  had  a  long  and  very  agreeable  visit 
from  Count  Cesare  Balbo,  whom  I  knew  very  well  in  1818  at  IVIadrid, 
where  his  father  was  Sardinian  Minister.  He  has  had  very  various 
fortunes  since  I  saw  him  last,  —  was  exiled  in  1821,  for  some  part  he 
took  ill  the  affairs  for  which  Pellico  suffered  ;  passed  two  years  in 
Paris,  where  he  married  a  granddaughter  of  Count  Segur  ;  came  back, 
and  was  still  not  permitted  to  enter  Turin,  but  passed  two  years  more 
in  the  country  ;  became  an  author,  to  amuse  and  fill  his  time,  wrote 
a  "History  of  the  Lombards  in  Italy,"  a  translation  of  the  "Annals 
of  Tacitus,"  four  Novelle,  which  are  very  beautiful,  some  literary  dis- 
cussions, an  edition  of  his  friend  Count  Vidua's  "  Letters,"  etc.  He 
lived  there  most  happily,  and  continued  happy  in  Turin  after  his 
return,  till  the  death  of  his  vn^e,  about  three  years  ago,  who  left  him 
with  eight  young  children,  and  his  aged  father. 

He  felt  himself  quite  overcome  by  his  position  for  a  long  time,  and 
especially  after  the  death  of  his  mother-in-law,  about  a  year  since, 
which  finally  determined  him  to  marry  again  ;  so  about  two  months 
ago  he  married  a  daughter  of  the  late  Count  Napione.  His  family 
being  rich,  and  he  an  only  son,  his  position  is  very  agreeable  ;  but  I 
think  he  finds  his  chief  resources  in  his  family  and  his  books,  and  is, 
as  I  believe  he  always  has  been,  a  truly  estimable  and  excellent,  as 
well  as  learned  and  able  man.  In  the  affairs  of  the  kingdom  he,  of 
course,  takes  no  share,  from  his  liberal  politics  ;  but  his  aged  father, 
who  has  filled  nearly  all  the  first  ofiices  of  the  state  at  different  times, 
is  still  held  in  great  consideration,  though  there  is  no  difference  in 
their  politics. 

October  1.  — .  .  .  .  When  Count  Balbo  was  with  me  yesterday,  I 
happened  to  ask  him  how  I  could  get  a  parcel  and  some  letters  to 
Pellico,  whom  I  had  ascertained  to  be  out  of  town.  He  replied  that 
the  Marquis  de  Barolo,  with  whom  PeUico  has  for  some  time  lived, 


JE.  45.]  CESARE  BALBO  AND  PELLICO.  39 

was  at  bis  villa,  which  is  next  to  Count  Balbo's  villa,  and  that  he 

would  deliver  the  whole  the  same  evening To-day  he  brought 

Pellico  to  make  us  a  visit _, 

Pellico  is  a  small,  commonplace-looking  man,  about  fifty  years  old, 
gentle,  modest,  and  quiet  in  his  manners  ;  his  health  still  feeble,  but 
not  bad,  from  his  long  confinement ;  and  with  a  subdued  air,  which  y 
shows  that  the  spirit  within  him  has  been  much  bruised  and  crushed, 
and  probably  his  very  talent  and  mind  reduced  in  its  tone.  He  spoke 
with  great  pleasure  of  the  American  translation  of  his  Prigioni, 
which  we  brought  him,  and  said  that  he  is  now  quite  happy  in  his 
position,  that  he  had  found  kindness  everywhere  among  his  country- 
men, and  that  his  wants  are  very  few,  and  that  they  are  much  more 
tban  supplied.     He  is,   I  understand,   extremely  religious,  perhaps 

somewhat  bigoted After  Balbo  was  gone  out  he  said, — with 

more  fervor  than  he  put  into  anything  else,  —  that  he  was  the  first 
friend  he  found  after  he  came  out  of  prison,  —  "  the  first,  I  mean,"  said 
he,  "  that  I  added  to  those  I  had  before  I  was  confined  ;  and  he  has 
been  an  excellent  and  kind  one  to  me  ever  since.  He  is  a  good  man  ; 
I  owe  him  much." 

The  facts  of  his  history  since  his  release,  I  learn,  are  as  follows. 
When  he  reached  Turin,  Italy  was  full  of  trouble  in  consequence  of 
the  French  revolution  of  1830,  and  all  liberal  men  were  suspected 
and  watched  ;  among  the  rest  Count  Balbo,  whose  name  was  on  a  list 
of  those  to  be  sent  to  Alessandria,  if  he  should  express  his  opinions  in 
favor  of  any  change.  Pellico,  therefore,  remained  most  quietly  with 
his  family,  going  out  hardly  at  all,  and  in  every  possible  way  avoid- 
ing suspicion.  Count  Balbo  sent  him  word,  through  Pellico's  brother, 
that  he  wished  to  know  him,  but  it  was  best  for  both  of  them  not 
to  meet  until  the  times  were  more  settled,  as  an  acquaintance  between 
them  now  might  injure  both.  At  the  same  time  he  advised  him  to 
live  quite  retired,  at  least  for  a  few  months.  In  the  spring  things 
were  more  settled,  and  Pellico  was  introduced  by  his  brother  to  Count 
Balbo,  who  at  once  became  interested  in  him. 

But  it  was  not  easy  to  interest  others  in  him.  Some  were  afraid  of 
the  consequences  of  intercourse  with  one  who  had  been  so  obnoxious 
to  the  legitimacy  of  Europe,  and  others  were  unwilling  to  receive  into 
their  society  one  who  had  worn  the  dress  of  a  GaUricn.  Balbo,  how- 
ever, continued  to  walk  with  him  in  public,  and  otherwise  make 
known  his  interest  in  him,  and  as  the  summer  advanced,  in\"ited  him 
to  pass  some  time  at  a  villa  he  had  somewhat  remote  from  Turin. 
He  in  fact  spent  several  months  there,  and  besides  writing  a  good 


L- 


40  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S36. 

deal  of  one  of  bis  tragedies,  began  to  write  bis  Prigioni,  wbicb, 
bowever,  be  ventured  upon  witb  very  great  besitation,  and  not  till 
after  Balbo  bad  encouraged  and  stimulated  bim  not  a  little  to  under- 
take it. 

Wben  tbe  Prigioni  were  publisbed,  tbe  minds  of  a  good  many 
persons  were  cbanged  by  it,  but  not  tbe  minds  of  all.  Among  tbose 
Avbo  now  sougbt  bis  acquaintance  were  tbe  Marquis  and  JNIarcbioness 
Barolo,  persons  of  large  fortune,  —  two  bundred  or  tbree  bundred 
tbousand  francs  per  annum,  —  of  an  old  family,  of  intellectual  tastes, 
and  niucb  devoted  to  doing  good.  Tbey  were  always  intimate  friends 
of  tbe  Balbo  family,  and  Count  Cesare  bad  made  some  movements 
earlier  towards  introducing  Pellico  to  tbem ;  but  be  bad  found  in  tbem 
a  little  repugnance  to  receiving  bim,  and  be  did  not  press  it.  Now 
tbey  asked  bim  to  bring  Pellico  to  tbeir  bouse,  and  tbe  result  bas 
been,  tbat  tbey  bave  become  attacbed  to  bim,  bave  invited  bim  to 
take  tbe  nominal  place  of  librarian,  witb  tbe  salary  of  twelve  bundred 
francs  a  year,  and  establisbed  bim  as  tbeir  inmate  completely,  except 
tbat  in  winter,  wben  tbey  are  in  Turin,  be  lodges  witb  bis  fatber  and 
motber.  It  is  a  quiet  situation,  and  be  says  be  is  very  bappy  in  it. 
I  doubt  not  it  is  so.  Tbe  Marquis  and  Marcbioness  bave  no  cbildren, 
and  spend  a  large  part  of  tbeir  great  income  in  works  of  benevolence. 
Wben  tbe  cbolera  appeared  at  Turin  last  year,  tbey  at  once  gave  up 
a  journey  tbey  bad  projected  to  Florence  and  Eome,  and  moved  into 
tbe  city  from  tbeir  villa,  devoting  tbemselves  to  tbe  means  of  pre- 
venting tbe  progress  of  tbe  disease,  as  well  as  to  tbe  bospitals,  wbicb 
tbe  Marcbioness,  as  well  as  ber  busband,  visited  regularly.  Sbe  bas 
constantly,  at  Turin,  a  House  of  Refuge  for  tbe  most  unbappy  class  of 
ber  own  sex,  and  in  ber  very  palazzo  sbe  bas  established  an  infant 
scbool,  wbere  tbe  poor  can  leave  tbeir  cbildren  wben  tbey  go  to  tbeir 
daily  work 

Wbile  Pellico  was  still  sitting  witb  us  ...  .  Sir  Augustus  Foster, 
the  British  Minister,  came  in,  and  I  was  glad  to  find  that  be  treated 
Pellico  witb  unaffected  kindness  and  consideration,  and  invited  bim 

to  dine Sir  Augustus  is  tbe  same  person  who  was  Minister  in 

tbe  United  States  wben  war  was  declared  witb  Great  Britain,*  and 
bas  been  Minister  here  eleven  years,  till  be  bas  grown  quite  a  Pied- 
montese  in  bis  tastes 

October  2.  — .  .  .  .  AYe  dined  witb  tbe  Marquis  Barolo,  at  bis  \dlla, 

....  about  six  or  seven  miles  from  Turin Oar  road  was  for 

some  time  on  tbe  banks  of  tbe  Po,  through  a  rich  and  beautiful  coun- 

*  In  1812. 


JE.  45.]  VILLAS  NEAR  TURIN.  41 


try,  with  the  snowy  Alps  on  our  rij^^ht  hand  and  before  us 

We  found  a  beautiful  villa,  in  the  Gothic  taste,  with  a  chapel  and 
ornamental  buildings  attached  to  it,  and  a  magnificent  view  of  the 
rich  plain  below  and  the  mighty  Alps  beyond.  The  Mar(|uis  we  "^ 
found  a  tall,  plain  person,  with  gentlemanlike  manners,  and  evidently 
good  sense  and  kind  feelings.  Mad.  de  Barolo,  to  our  great  surprise, 
is  a  Frenchwoman,  who,  notwithstanding  her  well-known  religious 
character  and  habitual,  active  benevolence,  has  all  a  Frenchwoman's 
grace,  vivacity,  and  esjirit.  The  appearance  of  things  was  everywhere 
elegant,  tasteful,  and  intellectual.  So  was  the  conversation.  Nobody 
was  there  but  the  family,  consisting,  besides  the  Barolos,  of  a  person 
who  seemed  to  be  a  secretary,  and  another  who  appeared  to  be  a  chap- 
lain, —  but  neither  of  whom  joined  in  any  of  the  conversation,  —  ■ 
Pellico,  and  Count  Balbo. 

About  an  hour  after  w^e  arrived  dinner  was  announced,  which  was 
served  about  six  o'clock,  by  candlelight,  in  a  beautiful  room  orna- 
mented with  a  few  pieces  of  sculpture.  The  service  was  of  silver. 
Pellico  was  gentle  and  pleasant,  but  talked  little,  and  I  could  not  help 
marking  the  contrast  between  his  conversation  and  the  grave,  strong, 
manly  conversation  of  Count  Balbo,  as  well  as  the  gay,  lively  com- 
msrage  of  Mad.  de  Barolo.  The  dinner,  which  was  entirely  French, 
was  extremely  agreeable,  and  when  it  was  over  we  went  to  the  saloon, 
had  coffee  and  more  pleasant  talk,  looked  over  autographs,  etc.,  till 
about  nine,  when  we  returned  to  Turin. 

October  3.  —  ....  In  the  afternoon  we  drove  down  the  Po  about 
as  far  as  w^e  drove  up  it  yesterday,  and  dined  with  Sir  Augustus  Fos- 
ter, at  his  ^dlla.  It  is  beautifully  situated  on  the  opposite  declivity 
of  the  height  on  which  stands  the  villa  of  the  Barolos,  and  commands 

the  other  view  of  the  Alps,  the  plain,  and  the  river The  party 

was  large,  consisting  of  Ramirez,  the  Neapolitan  Minister,  whom  I 
knew^  as  a  Secretary  of  Legation  in  Madrid  ;  Heldewier,  the  Dutch 
Minister,  whom  I  knew,  also,  as  a  Secretary  at  Madrid  ;  Truchsess, 
the  Prussian  Minister  ;  the  Marquis  and  Marchioness  de  Podenas,  the 
latter  of  whom  played  so  great  a  part  in  the  service  of  the  Duchess  de 
Berri  ;  and  several  other  persons.  It  was  an  elegant  dinner,  and  so  far 
as  talking  with  Mad.  de  Podenas  and  the  good-natured  Sir  Augus- 
tus Foster  could  make  an  agreeable  one,  I  found  it  so.  But  there 
was  nothing  special  about  it,  except  that  I  was  struck  with  meeting  so 
many  persons  at  Turin  whom  I  knew  at  Madrid.  I  can  already  count 
seven. 

October  4.  —  Count  Balbo  came  to  town  this  forenoon  to  see  us,  and     V- 


42  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

having  spent  a  good  deal  of  the  day  in  excellent  talk  with  him,  I 

went  to  his  father's  palazzo  in  to^Tn,  and  dined  with  him,  and  with  a 

^    small  and  very  agreeable  party  he  had  invited  to  meet  me.     They 

were  Sauli,  who  manages  the  affairs  of  the  island  of  Sardinia  ;  the 

^  Abbe  Gazzera,  a  great  bibliographer  ;  Count  Sclopis,*  who  is  engaged 
in  a  great  work  of  codification  for  the  whole  kingdom  ;  Boucheron, 
the  author  of  a  beautiful  Latin  life  of  the  Abbe  Caluso  ;  Count  Cossi, 
the  archivist  of  the  King  ;  and  the  Marquis  Alfieri,  a  connection  of 
the  poet.  It  was  an  elegant  dinner,  in  the  genuinely  Italian  style, 
and  the  conversation  was  very  animated  and  various.  A  jiart  of  it 
turned  on  the  relative  domestic  character  of  the  Italians  and  the 
French,  and  there  was  a  sharp  battle  well  fought  on  both  sides. 

I"  The  old  Count  did  not  dine  with  us,  but  he  came  into  the  saloon  in 
the  evening,  bringing  with  him  several  original  letters  of  Franklin, 
one  or  two  American  pamphlets,  and  other  things  that  he  thought  it 
would  please  me,  as  an  American,  to  see.  The  letters  of  Franklin  he 
inherited  with  the  papers  of  Beccaria,  —  the  professor  of  philosophy, 
not  the  jurist,  —  whose  favorite  pupil  the  Count  was,  and  who  cor- 
responded with  Franklin  about  electricity,  etc.  The  Count  is  nearly 
eighty  years  old,  and  much  broken  in  his  physical  strength,  but  his 

\_^  mind  is  as  clear  and  active  as  when  I  knew  him  in  1818. 

r~  October  5.  —  I  went  over  the  University  this  morning  with  the 
Abbe  Gazzera,  where  I  saw  nothing  worth  recollecting,  but  a  good 
liljrary  of  140,000  volumes,  with  a  few  curious  and  beautiful  manu- 
^,  scripts.  Afterwards  I  passed  a  little  time  with  Count  Cossi  in  the 
archives  of  the  kingdom,  but  again  saw  little  that  was  very  interest- 
ing  The  rest  of  the  forenoon  we  spent  in  a  drive  to  Count 

Balbo's  villa,  finely  situated  next  to  that  of  the  Marquis  de  Barolo  ; 
and  saw  his  wife,  who  seems  an  agreeable  and  suitable  person  for  his 
position  and  family.  I  was  sorry  to  part  ^Yith  them,  for  Count  Balbo 
has  really  shown  himself  an  old  friend  ever  since  we  have  been  in 
Turin. 

Milan,  October  7.  —  The  whole  morning  was  spent  in  different  in- 
quiries about  the  state  of  the  cholera,  to  all  which  I  obtained  most 
satisfactory  answers,  so  far  as  the  disease  itself  is  concerned,  which 
seems  to  be  fast  disappearing  from  all  parts  of  Italy The  after- 
noon I  spent  in  the  great  cathedral,  enjoying  the  mere  general  effect 
of  its  solemnity,  for  in  this  respect  I  know  of  no  building  in  Europe 
that  surpasses  it.     As  the  twilight  closed  in,  it  was  grand  and  impres- 

*  The  representative  of  Italy  in  the  Board  of  Arbitrators  which  met  at  Geneva 
in  1873,  to  settle  the  claims  of  the  United  States  against  England. 


JE.  45.]  MILAN.  43 

sive  indeed  ;  the  lights  at  two  or  three  altars,  and  the  humble  wor- 
shippers before  them,  adding  not  a  little  to  its  power. 

October  8.  —  Again  I  passed  the  morning  in  inquiries  about  the 
cholera  and  cordons,  ....  with  the  general  conclusion  which  I 
came  to  at  Turin,  that  Castel  Franco,  between  Modena  and  Bologna, 
is  the  best  place  for  us  to  undergo  the  quarantine,  without  which 
neither  Florence  nor  Rome  can  be  reached.  The  governor  of  Lom- 
bardy  was  very  civil  to  me,  and  showed  me  all  the  documents  relat- 
ing to  the  subject,  ....  and  from  looking  them  over  I  have  no 
doubt  the  cholera  has  nearly  disappeared  from  every  part  of  Italy. 
....  The  Roman  Consul  —  a  great  name  for  a  very  small  j)ersonage 
—  was  also  very  good-natured,  and  showed  me  whatever  I  wanted 
to  see.  But  neither  of  them  gave  me  any  hope  that  the  cordons 
will  be  removed  at  present,  and  the  governor  talked  of  the  Duke 
of  Modena  and  of  the  Pope  in  a  way  that  hardly  became  either  a 
good  neighbor  or  a  good  Catholic,  and  with  a  freedom  which  no  man. 
in  the  United  States,  holding  a  considerable  office,  would  venture  to 
use.  But  I  have  often  had  occasion  to  observe  that  opinions  are  more 
freely  expressed  in  Europe  than  they  are  with  us  ;  partly,  I  suppose, 
because  opinion  is  so  powerful  in  the  United  States,  and  of  so  little 
comparative  consequence  here,  where  the  governments  are  neither  , 
founded  on  opinion  nor  controlled  by  it. 

"  The  Duke  of  Modena,"  said  the  governor,  "  is  a  very  absurd  per- 
sonage, who  keeps  up  his  cordons,  in  part,  to  show  that  he  is  not 
under  Austrian  influence."  I  asked  him  what  might  be  expected 
from  the  Roman  States. 

"  Nothing  is  to  be  expected,"  he  replied,  "  from  a  government  of 
priests  but  inconsequence  and  imbecility." 

His  whole  talk  was  in  this  tone 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  the  Scala,  the  famous  Scala  which  has 
enjoyed  such  a  reputation  in  Europe  ever  since  it  was  built  in  1778,  ^ 
and  which  the  Austrian  government  is  obliged  to  keep  up  at  such 
great  cost.  Its  size,  indeed,  which  permits  it  to  hold,  with  its  six  rows 
of  boxes,  above  three  thousand  spectators  ;  the  splendor  of  the  view 
on  one  side,  which  is  all  gold  except  the  graceful  blue  silk  drapery 
that  shuts  the  fronts  of  the  boxes,  and  on  the  other  the  vast  stage, 
with  sometimes  nearly  a  thousand  actors  on  it ;  the  admirable  scenery  ;  v\ 
....  the  picturesque  and  even  poetical  ballet  ;  and  the  opera  itself,  — 
make  it,  I  dare  say,  what  it  chiefly  claims  to  be,  the  most  magnificent 

spectacle  of  the  sort  in  Europe There  is  at  this  moment  no    ^ 

society  in  Milan.     It  is  the  season  of  the  villeggiatura,  when  it  is  un- 


44  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1836. 

fasliionable  always  to  be  seen  in  tlie  city,  and  this  year  the  cholera 
has  made  it  a  desert,  so  that  hardly  one  box  in  ten  had  anybody  in  it. 
....  Belisario,  by  Donizetti,  was  pretty  well  performed  by  Tadolini 

as  the  prima  donna,  whom  we  had  heard  at  Vienna 

P  October  9. — We  spent  a  very  agreeable  day  to-day  with  the  Man- 
zoni  family,  at  their  villa  about  five  or  six  miles  from  Milan,  where 
they  live  half  the  year.  The  family  now  consists  of  the  elder  Mad. 
Manzoni,  who  is  the  daughter  of  the  well-known  Marquis  Beccaria, 
and  an  interesting  old  lady  ;  Manzoni  himself,  who  has  been  a 
widower  these  two  years  ;  and  his  five  children,  with  an  ecclesiastic, 
who  is  almost  always  found  in  respectable  Italian  families,  as  a  tutor 
and  religious  director.  To  this  party  was  added  to-day,  to  meet  us. 
Baron  Trechi,  ....  who  some  time  since  expiated  the  sin  of  having 
more  than  common  talent  and  liberal  views  of  politics,  by  a  fifteen- 
months'  confinement  in  an  Austrian  prison. 

The  whole  was  pleasant,  but  the  person  who  most  interested  me 
was  Manzoni  himself,  who  must,  I  suppose,  be  now  admitted  to  be 
the  most  successful  author  Italy  has  produced  since  the  days  of 
Alfieri,  and  who  has,  besides,  the  merit  of  being  a  truly  excellent  and 
respectable  man.  He  is  now  fifty-one  years  old,  for,  as  he  told  me 
to-day,  he  was  born  in  1785,  and  he  has  been  known  as  an  author 

since  he  published  his  Inni  sacri,  in  1816 But  no  degree  of 

success  encourages  him  to  write  much.  He  has  a  sensitive,  retiring 
spirit,  and  what  he  has  achieved  amidst  almost  unbroken  applause  is 
said  to  be  no  compensation  to  himself  for  the  occasional  murmurs 
of  critical  censure  that  reach  even  those  who  least  need  or  deserve 
them.  In  conversation  he  showed  some  of  this  character.  He 
seemed,  so  to  speak,  to  be  strong  through  his  fears  ;  and  talked  with 
the  most  energy  where  he  felt  the  most  misgi\dng. 

Thus,  for  instance,  he  was  positively  eloquent  when  he  urged  his 
fears  that  the  attempts  to  introduce  liberal  institutions  into  Europe 
would  end  in  fastening  the  chains  of  a  heavier  despotism  on  the  peo- 
ple, and  that  the  irreligious  tendencies  of  the  age  would  but  arm  the 
priesthood  with  new  and  more  dangerous  power.  In  the  question 
of  slavery  in  the  United  States  he  was  much  interested,  and  said  he 
wished  the  northern  portion  of  America  were  separated  from  the 
southern,  that  New  England  and  the  other  free  States  might  be 
entirely  relieved  from  this  odious  taint.  He  talked  well,  too,  upon 
other  subjects,  especially  literary  subjects  ;  but  he  is  more  thoroughly 
interested,  I  should  think,  in  what  relates  to  religion  and  govern- 
ment than  anything  else,  though  his  fears  and  anxieties  will  proba- 


M.  45.]  MAXZOXI.  45 

bly  prevent  him  from  ever  fully  publi.sliiiig  all  be  thinks  and  feels  on 
either  of  them.  But  he  is  a  man  of  wisely  liberal  views  in  politics, 
I  should  think,  and  a  sincere  Catholic  in  his  faith.  His  tempera- 
ment leads  him  to  live  nmch  and  quietly  in  the  country,  where  he 
occupies  himself  with  agriculture  and  botany,  with  poetry  and  litera- 
ture. He  is  rich  already,  and  on  the  death  of  his  aged  uncle,  the 
present  Marquis  Beccaria,  he  will  be  master  of  a  large  fortune  ; 
though  I  think  this  will  hardly  much  affect  his  habits  or  his  modes 
of  life,  which  will  always  be  determined  by  his  original  character. 
He  is  of  middling  size,  and  his  hair  is  quite  gray,  so  that  he  looks 
older  than  he  is  ;  he  stutters  a  very  little,  and  he  takes  snuff  freely. 
He  is  simple,  frank,  and  ardent,  —  at  least  sometimes  ardent  in  his 
manner, — and  left  with  me  not  only  a  strong  impression  of  his 
talent,  but  of  his  excellent  and  faithful  character " 

October  10.  — ....  To  the  Brera  we  next  went Most  of  its 

halls  are  not  w^ell  enough  lighted,  but  the  three  pictures  that  are  best 
worth  seeing  are  in  very  good  positions.  They  are  Eaffaelle's  Spo- 
Balizio,  —  a  work  of  his  youth,  which,  notwithstanding  its  grace  and 
sweetness,  has  so  many  awkward  parts  about  it,  that  it  cannot  be 
looked  at  with  great  pleasure  ;  Guide's  Peter  and  Paul  in  Discussion 
about  the  Gentiles,  a  grand  picture  full  of  deep  meaning  ;  and  Guer-  v 
cino's  Hagar  sent  away  by  Abraham,  in  which  the  severity  of  the 
patriarch,  the  half-concealed  triumph  of  Sarah,  and  the  broken-hearted 
expression  of  the  beautiful  victim,  who  hesitates  yet  an  instant  to 
believe  or  obey  the  cruel  command  for  her  exile,  produce  altogether 
an  effect  which  places  it  among  the  very  first  pictures  in  the  world. 
I  was  glad  to  find  that  the  beautiful  Hagar  was  quite  fresh  in  my 
recollection  after  an  interval  of  nearly  twenty  years 

October  11.  —  We  passed  the  forenoon  in  the  cathedral,  which,  in 
fact,  I  visit  every  day  ;  but  which  we  to-day  examined  in  some  detail. 
It  is  a  mas^nificent  structure,  inferior  in  size  onlv  to  St.  Peter's  and 
St.  Paul's,  and  built  of  solid  marble  in  all  its  architecture  and  orna- 
ments, from  the  foundation-stone  to  the  pinnacle This  is  pre- 

ciselv  one  of  the  buildinfrs  where  vou  care  nothing  about  the  details, 
though  I  must  needs  say  I  do  not  like  the  doors  and  windows  on  the 
front,  or  the  magnificent  granite  pillars  on  the  inside  of  the  principal 
entrance,  because  they  are  of  Roman  architecture  and  contradict  the 
rest  of  the  fabric.  Still,  after  all,  you  do  not  think  of  these  incon- 
gruities when  you  are  there,  for  they  are  lost  in  the  effect  of  the 
whole.  Its  vastness,  its  gorgeousness,  and  the  richness  of  the  dim 
light  by  which  it  is  seen,  give  it  full  power  over  the  imagination. 


46  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

October  13.  — .  .  .  .  In  the  afternoon  Mr.  Binney,  of  Philadelpliia, 
and  his  party  joined  us  from  Venice,  with  the  intention  of  going 
South  with  us,  whenever  we  shall  jointly  determine  upon  the  course 

it  will  be  best  to  take 

"*       October  19.  —  We  have  passed  through  the  territories  of  the  Duke 
sy'  of  ]\lodena,  and  are  safely  shut  up  for  a  fortnight's  quarantine  in 

Castel  Franco.  The  whole  day's  work  has  been  as  ridiculous  as 
anything  of  the  sort,  perhaps,  can  be.  In  less  than  an  hour  after 
leaving  Parma  we  reached  the  frontier  of  Modena,  and  were  stopped 
by  the  guard  till  horses  could  be  sent  for  ;  as  the  Duke  allows  no 
foreigner  to  enter  his  territories,  who  does  not  come  prepared  to  trav- 
erse them  as  fast  as  post-horses  can  carry  him,  and  under  an  escort, 
to  make  it  sure  that  no  intercourse  is  held  with  the  inhabitants  on 
the  way.  The  whole  goes  here,  as  elsewhere  in  Italy,  on  the  absurd 
system  that  cholera  is  conmiunicated  mainly,  and  perhaps  solely,  by 
contact,  like  the  plague.  Our  passport,  therefore,  was  taken  in  a 
pair  of  tongs  and  fumigated  ;  the  money  to  pay  for  this  graceful 
ceremony  was  dropped  into  vinegar,  and  then  the  passport  was  given 
to  two  carabineers,  who  rode  in  a  caleche  behind  us,  to  see  that  we 
did  not  get  out  of  the  carriage  or  touch  any  of  the  subjects  of  the 
most  gracious  Duke.  In  this  way  we  were  handed  on  from  post  to 
post,  changing  the  carabineers  at  each  station,  until  about  three 
o'clock,  or  about  six  hours  after  we  entered  Modena,  we  crossed  its 
frontiers  again  and  were  delivered  over  to  the  Pope's  guards,  who 
fumigated  our  passport  anew,  —  though  it  had  been  in  the  hands  of 
the  carabineers  the  whole  time,  —  and  then  sent  us  into  our  lazaretto, 
which  is  neither  more  nor  less  than  a  set  of  old  brick  barracks  in 
a  ruined  fort,  erected  some  time  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
dismantled  by  the  French.  Our  rooms  are  brick  on  all  sides,  and 
cheerless  enough  ;  but  the  food  is  quite  decent. 

In  these  barracks  we  are  locked  up  and  guarded  Avith  perhaps 
twenty  or  thirty  other  persons,  ....  we  are  not  allowed  to  touch 
any  person  who  came  in  on  a  different  day  from  ourselves,  nor  to 
touch  anything  they  have  touched  ;  but  we  may  all  walk  and  con- 
verse together  in  a  large,  well-sodded  esplanade  of  about  ten  acres, 
surrounded  completely  Avith  the   buildings  which  prevent  us  from 

seeing  anything  of  the  external  world This  is  to  be  our  fate 

for  a  fortnight ;  but  we  have  a  pleasant  party  and  abundant  occupa- 
tions, and  ....  are  not  altogether  sorry  for  a  little  real  repose,  after 

above  five  months  of  very  busy  travelling 

""       October  30.  —  We  have  now  gone  through  nearly  the  whole  of  this 


M.  45.]  BOLOGNA.  47 

miserable  farce  of  a  quarantine,  and  next  day  after  to-morrow  are  to 
be  released,  and  pronounced  free  of  infection.  On  the  whole,  it  has 
not  been  worse  than  we  anticipated,  and  we  have  all  been  so  truly 
busy  that  I  do  not  know  when  the  same  number  of  days  have  passed 
so  quickly.  Every  morning  I  have  risen  at  seven,  and  we  have  all 
met  for  breakfast  about  nine  ;  after  which  we  have  occupied  our- 
selves  in   reading   and   writing  ....  till  twelve,  when  we   have 

generally  walked  an  hour  in  the  most  delightful  weather At 

five  we  have  met  again  for  dinner,  after  which  we  took  a  dish  of  tea 

together  and  finished  the  evening  with  a  game  of  whist Part 

of  the  time  there  have  been  fifty  persons  in  the  same  condition  with 
ourselves,  and  at  this  moment  there  are  above  twenty  Americans 
here.  Most  of  the  parties  complain  mucli  of  the  tediousness  and 
vexation  of  the  delay,  and  we  have  heartily  pitied  a  poor  Russian 
Countess  who  has  heard  here  of  the  illness  and  death  of  a  child  at 
Florence,  hardly  twenty  hours'  drive  from  here,  which  she  yet  could 
not  be  permitted  to  visit 

November  1.  —  This  morning  we  were  released.  The  population 
of  the  lazaretto  has  been  much  increased  within  the  last  two  davs, 
....  in  such  numbers  that  no  suitable  accommodafions  can  be  pro- 
vided for  them This  morning  they  crowded  round  the  carriage 

as  we  entered  it,  looking  like  the  poor  souls  in  Virgil  who  are  not 

permitted  to  pass  over  the  Styx However,  we  did  not  stop  to 

think  much  of  such  things,  but  hastened  on  to  Bologna,  where  we 
were  glad  indeed  to  find  ourselves  again  amidst  the  somewhat  cheer- 
less comforts  of  a  huge  Italian  palazzo,  turned  into  an  inn.  As  soon 
as  we  were  established  we  went  out  to  see  the  city,  with  an  appe- 
tite for  sights  somewhat  sharpened  by  an  abstinence  of  a  full  fort- 
night  

The  evening  I  spent  with  Mad.  IVfartinetti,  with  whom,  nine-  v 
teen  years  ago,  I  spent  the  only  two  evenings  I  ever  passed  in  Bo- 
logna.* She  is  not  as  beautiful  as  she  was  then,  when  she  had 
recently  sat  to  Gerard  as  the  model  for  his  Corinna  improvisating 
on  Cape  Misenum  ;  but  she  is  still  a  fine-looking  woman,  and  has  the  ^ 
grace,  sweetness,  and  intelligence  of  which  time  can  never  despoil  her, 
and  which  have  always  made  her  house  one  of  the  most  agreeable  in 
Italy.  J 

*  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  166, 167. 


48  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 


CHAPTEE    III. 

Florence. — Niccolini.  —  Madame  Lenzoni.  —  Grand  Duhe.  — Micali. — 
Alberti  Manuscri'pts  of  Tasso.  —  Gi7io  Cajpjioni.  —  Italian  Society. 
—  Rome.  —  Bunsen.  —  ThorwaMsen.  —  Princess  Gabrielli.  —  Bor- 
gheses.  —  Cardinal  Fesch.  —  English  Society.  —  Princess  Massimo.  — 
Archceological  Lectures. 

JOURNAL. 

Florence,  November  5.  —  A  rainy  day.  I  vrent,  however,  to  see 
my  friend  Bellocq,  whom  I  knew  in  Madrid  as  Secretary  of  the  French 
Embassy  there,  and  who  is  here  Charge  d Affaires  from  France, — 
a  bachelor,  grown  old,  and  somewhat  delabre,  but  apparently  with 
as  much  bonhomie  as  ever.  I  drove,  too,  to  Greenough's  house,  but 
found  he  had  gone  to  the  United  States ;  "^  .  .  .  .  but  I  did  little  else 
except  make  inquiries  about  the  cholera  at  Naples,  which  threatens  to 
interfere  with  our  plans. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  a  regailar  Italian  conversazione,  which 
occurs  twice  a  week  at  the  house  of  the  Marchioness  Lenzoni,  the 
last  descendant  of  one  branch  of  the  Medici  family.  Her  house  is 
beautifully  fitted  up  with  works  of  art,  and  is  in  all  respects  redolent 
of  the  genius  of  Italy,  and  ....  she  receives  more  intellectual  soci- 
ety than  anybody  in  Florence.  She  is,  I  suppose,  about  fifty  years 
old,  and,  like  all  well-bred  Italian  women  of  her  class,  entirely  with- 
out affectation  or  pretension.  I  found  there  Micali,  the  author  of 
"Italia  avanti  il  Dominio  dei  Eomani,"  —  an  old  man,  but  very  full  of 
life  and  spirit  ;  Forti,  who  is  distinguishing  himself  as  a  political  econ- 
omist ;  a  professor  of  mathematics,  and  two  or  three  other  agreeable 

people I  was  particularly  glad  to  make  the  acquaintance  of 

Micali,  whose  book,  which  I  have  valued  these  twenty  years,  has, 
I  find,  passed  through  eight  or  ten  editions,  notwithstanding  its  severe 
and  learned  character. 

November  7.  —  This  morning  I  went  to  the  gallery The 

Tribune  I  found  —  as  far  as  I  can  recollect — just  as  I  left  it  eigh- 

*  Horatio  Greenough,  the  American  sculptor. 


JE.  45.] 


NICCOLINI.  49 


teen  years  ago,  and  I  cannot  express  how  much  pleasure  it  gave  me. 
....  It  is,  indeed,  a  sort  of  holy  place  in  the  arts,  and  even  the 
least  interested  visitors  speak  under  their  breath,  and  tread  lightly,  as 
they  glide  about  from  the  monument  of  one  great  man's  genius  to 
that  of  another,  consecrated  already  by  the  testimony  of  ages. 

November  9.  —  I  made  a  visit  to  Niccolini,  the  tragic  writer  and 
general  scholar,  who  now,  I  suppose,  ranks  the  first  of  his  class  in 
Florence.  He  is  about  fifty-five  years  old,  with  a  fine  head,  but  little 
beauty  or  dignity  of  person,  and  with  manners  always  awkward  and 
sometimes,  as  I  hear,  a  little  savage.  I  found  him  disposed  to  be 
agreeable,  partly,  perhaps,  because  I  came  from  a  republic,  and  he  is 

a  republican,  or  high  liberal He  is  engaged  now  in  writing  a 

history  of  the  Suabian  power  in  Italy  ;  hut  I  should  think  his  want 
of  all  knowledge  of  German  would  be  a  grave  impediment  to  his 
success,  and  that  he  must  rely  chiefly  on  the  good  proportions  and 
finish  of  his  book  as  a  work  of  art.  He  is,  however,  much  in  earnest 
about  it,  and  as  he  gives  up  the  theatre  because,  as  he  says,  he  be- 
lieves the  opera  is  to  prevail  over  it  more  and  more,  I  suppose  he 
will  make  it  all  he  can. 

November  10. —  ....  In  the  evening  I  had  a  long  visit  from 
Niccolini,  who,  I  suppose,  fancies  himself  to  have  inherited  the  gen- 
uine spirit  of  the  old  Florentine  Republic,  and  who  is,  perhaps,  as 
much  of  a  republican  as  an  Italian  of  the  nineteenth  century  knows 
how  to  be.  His  "John  of  Procida,"  the  tragedy  on  the  Sicilian 
Vespers,  shows  this  plainly  enough,  and  when  I  alluded  to  it  this 
evening  he  told  me  a  curious  story  about  it. 

The  French  Minister  here,  he  said,  was  so  much  annoyed  by  the 
bitterness  with  which  the  French  are  treated  in  it,  that  he  complained 
to  the  Grand  Duke,  and  had  its  representation  stopped.  The  severe 
allusions  to  French  tyranny  were,  however,  no  doubt  all  intended  by 
Niccolini  for  the  Austrians  ;  and  Count  Bombelles  — the  same  I  knew 
at  Berne  —  was  so  well  aware  of  this,  that,  with  his  characteristic 
good-humor  and  plainness,  he  told  his  French  colleague,  "  I  wonder 
you  took  so  much  trouble  about  Niccolini's  tragedy  ;  the  letter,  to 
be  sure,  was  addressed  to  you,  but  the  contents  of  it  were  all  meant 
for  me." 

November  14.  —  I  brought  a  letter  from  Prince  John,  of  Saxony,  to 
the  Grand  Duke,  ....  in  consequence  of  which  I  receiyed  yesterday, 
from  Count  Fossombroni,  the  Prime  Minister,  a  formal  despatch,  say- 
ing that  the  Grand  Duke  would  receive  me  to-day,  at  twelve,  in  his 
cabinet So  to-day  I  went  to  the  Pitti  Palace,  and  after  passing 

VOL.    II.  3  D 


50  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

tkrough  the  regular  antechambers  and  by  the  noble  guards  on  service, 
was  conducted  through  a  labyrinth  of  passages,  —  one  of  which  passed 
near  the  kitchens,  —  until  at  last  I  reached  a  small  room  where  was 
one  ordinary-looking  old  servant  in  attendance,  out  of  livery.  In 
two  or  three  minutes  he  told  me  the  Grand  Duke  was  ready  to  receive 
me,  and  I  passed  into  his  cabinet,  which  I  found  a  large  room,  exces- 
sively encumbered  with  rich  furniture,  and  containing  several  tables 
covered  with  papers,  and  a  desk,  or  working-table,  ....  before  which 
was  a  beautiful  bust  of  the  Grand  Duchess. 
^  The  Grand  Duke  was  standing  just  by  the  door  to  receive  me,  and 
carried  me  at  once  to  a  sofa,  where  we  sat  down  together.  He  is 
thirty-nine  years  old,  rather  tall,  thin,  pale,  and  awkward.  He  talks 
French  fluently  and  correctly,  but  with  a  strong  Italian  accent,  and  a 
little  thickness  of  voice,  which,  added  to  a  little  real  embarrassment, 
made  it  somewhat  diiiicult  to  understand  him,  until  he  was  en  train. 
The  subjects  were  chosen  chiefly  by  himself,  but  after  talking  a  little 
about  Saxony,  and  the  princes  there,  and  a  little  more  about  Florence 
and  the  objects  of  my  visit,  he  fastened  upon  the  United  States,  and 
asked  me  a  great  many  questions  about  our  manners,  and  modes  of 
life,  our  luxury,  the  amount  of  the  incomes  of  our  rich  men,  the  way 
in  which  they  are  spent,  etc.  He  was  generally  well  enough  informed 
to  put  his  questions  well,  and  always  very  curious  and  eager.  Indeed, 
I  do  not  know  when  I  have  seen  anybody  so  greedy  of  matter-of-fact 
knowledge  ;  and  whenever  I  said  anything  that  struck  him  he  took 
out  his  tablets,  and  made  a  note  of  it,  as  if  he  meant  to  seize  every 
occasion  to  pick  up  a  fact. 

At  last,  as  the  conversation  grew  more  interesting  to  him,  he  kept 
his  tablets  constantly  in  his  hand,  and  \\Tote  as  diligently  as  a  Ger- 
man student  at  a  lecture.  On  his  part,  he  spoke  of  the  decay  of  the 
great  fortunes  of  the  nobility  in  Italy  with  some  tone  of  regret, 
though,  he  said,  it  would  probably  at  last  lead  to  good  ;  and  when 
we  talked  about  domestic  life  and  the  purity  of  its  relations  in 
America,  he  expressed  the  bitterest  pain  at  the  corruption  of  the  mar- 
ried state  in  Italy,  and  added,  "  If  we  could  have  in  this  respect  your 
foundation  to  build  upon,  we  could  still  have  a  great  state  in  Italy. 
But  it  is  too  late.  We  are  quite  corrupt  in  all  our  domestic  relations, 
and  it  comes  chiefly,  I  think,  from  the  fact  that  the  infidelity  of  a  hus- 
band is  not  thought  to  be  at  all  a  ground  of  censure." 

He  asked  me  where  I  thought  it  the  greatest  good  fortune  for  a 
man  to  be  born.  I  told  him  in  America.  He  asked  why.  And  when 
I  replied,  that  the  mass  of  the  community  there,  by  being  occupied 


^.  45.]  GRAND  DUKE  OF  TUSCANY.  51 

alxnit  the  uffairs  of  the  state,  instead  of  being  confined,  as  they  are 
elsewhere,  to  the  mere  drudgery  of  earning  their  own  subsistence,  are 
more  truly  men,  and  that  it  is  more  agreeable  and  elevating  to  live 
among  them,  he  blushed  a  little,  but  made  no  answer. 

Just  at  this  moment  the  Archbishop  was  announced,  and  the  Prince, 
saying  he  should  like  to  talk  with  me  still  further,  but  that  he  had 
indispensable  business  with  the  Archbishop,  asked  me  if  I  would  go 
for  an  instant  into  an  adjoining  room  and  then  return  to  him.  I  did 
so,  the  Archbishop  not  stopping  above  two  or  three  minutes. 

When  I  went  back  he  took  out  his  tablets  again,  and  plied  me  with 
questions  about  America  till  nearly  two  o'clock,  which  is  his  dinner- 
hour  ;  when,  rising  and  going  with  me  to  the  door,  he  thanked  me 
for  the  information  I  had  given  him,  and  dismissed  me.  He  struck 
me,  on  the  whole,  to  have  the  character  often  attributed  to  him,  of 
being  an  honest,  well-meaning  man,  anxious  to  get  the  knowledge 
that  will  make  him  a  faithful  governor  of  his  people  ;  but,  though 
with  a  fair  and  intelligent  mind,  so  greatly  wanting  in  firmness  and 
energy,  that  it  is  hardly  possible  he  should  not  be  led  and  governed 
by  designing  men.  This  is  said  to  be  the  case  now,  and  he  is  grow- 
ing unpopular  very  fast.  When  he  came  to  the  sovereignty,  in  1824, 
and  for  six  years  afterwards,  he  w'as  greatly  loved  ;  but  since  that 
time,  and  especially  since  the  troubles  in  Italy  in  1831  -32,  that  grcAV 
out  of  the  French  changes  of  1830,  he  has  fallen  more  and  more  into 
the  hands  of  those  who  desire  the  progress  of  absolutism,  and  has 
become  less  and  less  welcome  to  his  people.  Where  it  is  all  to  end, 
it  is  not  perhaps  easy  to  foresee.  His  private  and  domestic  character 
is  admitted  by  all  to  be  good  ;  he  lives  entirely  with  his  family,  and 
devotes  himself  most  laboriously  to  the  work  of  government ;  but 
after  all,  if  he  does  not  know  how  to  govern,  and  if  his  system  is 
opposed  to  the  whole  spirit  of  his  time,  his  good  qualities  will  avail 
him  nothing,  and  his  zealous  and  voluntary  personal  labors,  by 
making  him  responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  what  he  might  otherwise 
well  leave  to  his  ministers,  will  only  run  up  a  heavier  account  with 
his  people,  and  one  that,  in  the  end,  may  be  the  harder  to  settle.  I  ^ 
look  upon  him,  therefore,  to  be  in  an  unhappy  position,  and  his  whole 
air  and  manner  to-day  seemed  to  me  to  show  that  he  feels  it  to  be  an 
anxious  one 

November  15.  —  I  passed  some  time  this  morning  with  the  Cavaliere 
^licali,  a  very  lively  and  courtly  little  old  gentleman,  who  is  as  full 
of  knowledge  of  all  sorts,  from  his  Etruscan  antiquities  down  to  the 
commonest  gossip  of  the  day,  as  a  man  well  can  be.  He  carried  me 
from  his  own  house  to  see  the  Eiccardi  Palace 


52  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 


On  my  return  home  I  liad  a  visit  from  the  Marquis  de'  Torrigiani, 
second  son  of  the  head  of  the  family,  a  very  respectable,  modest  young 
man,  who  travelled  a  few  years  ago  in  the  United  States.  Since  he 
came  back  he  has  interested  himself  in  reviving  and  giving  efficiency 
to  some  old  schools  for  popular  instruction,  in  which  he  has  partly 
succeeded,  but  in  which  the  spirit  of  the  government  is  substantially 
against  him.  Even  his  own  family  give  him  no  hearty  support,  I  am 
told,  though  they  are  pleased  with  it,  as  a  sort  of  feather  in  the  cap 
of  one  of  their  number.  He  talks  English  very  well,  and  has  a  quiet, 
gentle  manner,  which,  with  his  apparent  good  sense,  makes  me  augur 
well  for  his  success 

November  16.  — I  went  this  morning  with  Micali  to  see  the  Mar- 
quis Gaetano  Capponi,  a  member  of  one  of  those  old  Florentine  fami- 
lies whose  titles  have  survived  their  fortunes,  but  who  still  relish  of 
the  old  stock.  He  is  a  retired,  modest  man,  remarkable  chiefly  for 
his  love  of  Tasso,  and  for  his  collection  of  books  relative  to  Tasso, 
which,  in  fact,  induced  me  to  visit  him.  It  is  a  very  remarkable  col- 
lection, comprising  every  edition  of  the  poet  himself  of  any  note 
whatsoever,  and  nearly  every  other  one,  however  inconsiderable ; 
together  with  whatever  has  been  written  and  published  separately 
about  him.  The  Marquis  is  now  just  about  to  enter  into  a  discussion 
concerning  the  Alberti  Manuscripts,  as  they  are  called,  on  which  he 
means  to  print  a  pamphlet. 

It  is  a  curious  subject,  and  if  he  ^a^U  give  an  historical  and  plain 
account  of  the  matter,  he  will  render  a  very  acceptable  service  to 

Italian   literature The   facts   in  the   case  are,  I  believe,   as 

follows.  The  Falconieri  Library  at  Rome,  it  has  always  been  well 
known,  contained  at  one  time  a  quantity  of  Tasso's  manuscripts, 
and  when  Foppa  published,  in  1666,  his  collection  of  Tasso's  Inedita, 
he  intimated  in  his  preface  that  he  had  not  published  the  whole  con- 
tained in  that  library.  Count  Alberti,  therefore,  as  he  says,  sought 
for  this  remainder  of  Tasso's  autographs,  and  found  them  ten  years 
since,  and  purchased  them  of  the  present  Prince  Falconieri,  making 
an  exact  schedule  of  what  he  took,  and  obtaining  the  Prince's  receipt 
at  the  bottom  of  it.  It  was  soon  bruited  about  that  Count  Alberti 
was  in  possession  of  very  curious  autograph  manuscripts  of  Tasso, 
which  left  no  doubt  that  the  mutual  attachment  between  himself  and 
Eleonora  of  Este  was  the  real  cause  of  his  confinement,  and  that  his 
insanity  was  feigned  at  the  command  of  the  Duke,  to  avoid  worse 
consequences.  Thereupon  the  Prince  Falconieri,  without  notice  to 
Count  Alberti,  reclaimed  his  manuscripts  by  process  of  law,  as  hav- 


M.  45.]  ALBERTI  MANUSCRIPTS.  53 

iiig  been  in  fact,  if  not  in  form,  stolen  from  liim  ;  to  all  which  the 
Count  replied  by  the  schedule  and  receipt,  and  the  matter  was  quashed. 
So  much  the  greater,  however,  was  the  noise  the  manuscripts  made 
in  the  world  ;  the  Grand  Duke  of  Tuscany  heard  of  them  and  en- 
tered into  treaty  for  them  ;  they  were  brought  to  Florence,  and  he 
agreed  to  give  six  thousand  crowns  for  them,  if  they  should  be  found 
genuine  by  persons  skilled  in  manuscripts.  But  here  was  the  rub. 
Experts  beyond  all  suspicion  of  unfairness  examined  them,  and  de- 
clined to  pronounce  them  genuine,  without  absolutely  declaring  them 
to  be  forgeries  ;  the  Grand  Duke  gave  Coimt  Alberti  some  hundred 
crowns  for  his  trouble,  and  from  that  time  —  which  is  now  three 
years  —  the  general  opinion  has  gone  against  their  authenticity. 

Count  Alberti,  on  his  side,  appeals  to  the  well-known  facts  touch- 
ing the  Falconieri  Library,  and  to  the  legal  suit,  and  objects  to  the 
persons  who  examined  his  manuscripts,  that  they  ought  not  to  have 
been  mere  experts  in  handwriting,  but  rather  men  of  letters,  who 
should  have  judged  in  part,  at  least,  from  internal  evidence  and  his- 
torical proofs. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  said  that  Count  Alberti  is  an  adventurer, 
who  had  formerly  been  an  officer  in  the  army  ;  that,  among  other 
doubtful  characteristics  and  accomj)lishments,  he  has  that  of  being 
able  to  imitate  all  sorts  of  handwriting  ;  that,  knowing  the  history 
of  the  Falconieri  Library,  he  went  there  and  found  two  or  three 
eonnets,  and  other  inconsiderable  autograph  manuscripts  of  Tasso  ; 
that  he  then,  probably,  entered  into  an  arrangement  with  the  Prince 
to  carry  on  the  imposition  of  making  others,  which  the  Prince  should 
seem  to  sell  him  by  schedule  ;  that  the  lawsuit  was  intended  merely 
to  give  form  to  the  fraud  ;  that  the  Count  has  not  been  frank  and 
open  in  showing  all  the  manuscripts  to  those  who  could  best  judge, 
or  who  had  suspicions  of  their  authenticity  ;  that  a  man  of  honor 
could  never  have  received  the  few  hundred  cro-\\Tis  given  by  the 
Grand  Duke,  on  the  ground  that  the  manuscripts  were  not  genuine, 
because,  if  they  were  not,  the  inference  is  irresistible  that  the  Count 
has  forged  them ;  and  that,  finally,  the  manuscripts  which  seem  on  all 
accounts  to  be  Tasso's  do  not  touch  the  interesting  questions  of  his 
life,  while  all  the  rest  relate  to  nothing  else,  and  have  a  most  sus- 
picious completeness  about  them,  comprising  even  several  notes  of 
the  Princess  Eleonora  herself.  Of  this  last  party,  — r  adverse  to  the 
genuineness  of  the  manuscripts,  —  are  now,  I  am  told,  all  the  men  of 
letters  in  Florence :  Niccolini,  Capponi,  Micali,  Becchi,  etc.,  though 
Bomo  of  them,  like  Niccolini,  were  at  first  believers  in  their  authen- 


54  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

ticity,  and  gave  certificates  to  that  effect.  I  have  talked  with  these 
four  persons  and  some  others  about  it,  and  they  seem  to  have  no 
doubt ;  and,  on  the  other  side,  I  have  found  only  my  American 
friend,  Mr.  "Wilde,  who  seems  to  be  quite  as  confident  in  the  opposite 
opinion.  It  is  a  strange  and  curious  matter,  no  doubt,  and  probably 
something  like  the  Shakespeare  papers,  which  Ireland  pretended  to 
have  found,  but  managed  by  an  older  and  much  more  wary  and 
skilful  person. 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  the  Grand  Duke's  first  ball  of  the  sea- 
son, given  at  the  Pitti  Palace.  Nothing  could  be  more  unceremoni- 
ous. It  is  the  only  occasion  on  which  he  sees  strangers,  or  his  own 
subjects,  except  for  business  or  in  private  audiences  in  his  cabinet. 
....  Any  strangers  who  are  presented  to  him  by  their  ministers  may 
come  whenever  a  ball  occurs,  without  further  invitation,  but  Tuscans 

come  only  as  they  are  specially  invited The  entrance  is  by  the 

back  part  of  the  palace,  which  being  on  the  upj)er  side  of  the  hill,  we 

came  in  on  the  second  story We  passed  through  many  long 

winding  passages,  and  one  or  two  fine  antechambers,  and  then  came 
into  a  large  and  very  high  hall,  all  white,  and  lighted  with  wax- 
tapers  built  up  in  the  form  of  obelisks,  quite  round  the  sides,  and  as 

bright  as  noonday.     In  this  the  company  assembled About 

half  past  eight  the  Grand  Duke  and  Duchess,  with  their  Court,  came 

in,  all  dressed  simply They  passed  round  the  room,  and  the 

strangers  were  presented  to  them,  to  the  number,  I  should  think, 

of  sixty  or  seventy The  Grand  Duchess  is  quite  handsome,  .... 

but  she  had  very  few  words  to  say  to  anybody The  Grand  Duke 

made  some  conversation  with  us,  talked  about  the  dress  of  ladies  in 
America,  about  steamboats  crossing  the  Atlantic,  and  seemed  quite 
willing  to  be  agreeable,  though  he  was  certainly  awkward  in  his 
eff'orts,  and  preserved,  both  then  and  through  the  whole  evening,  the 
same  anxious  look  I  had  observed  yesterday.  After  the  presentations 
were  over  the  dancing  began,  and  the  Duke  and  Duchess  danced 
nearly  every  time.  A  part  of  the  company  went  into  four  or  five 
small  rooms  near  the  principal  one,  and  lounged  or  played  cards  ; 
and  between  eleven  and  twelve  a  larger  room  was  opened,  with  re- 
freshments, but  no  regular  supper.  Soon  after  midnight  the  Court 
disappeared,  and  we  were  at  home  before  one  o'clock. 

Prince  Maximilian  of  Saxony  —  one  of  whose  daughters  is  now 
Duchess  Dowager  of  Tuscan}^,  and  another  was  the  first  wife  of  the 
present  Grand  Duke  —  is  now  here  with  his  pretty  young  wife,  and 
his  sensible,  gifted  daughter  Amelia,  to  pass  the  winter.     They  were, 


J&.  45.]  SAXON  PrJNCES.  55 


of  course,  at  the  ball,  and  as  soon  as  the  Court  came  into  the  room, 
crossed  it  to  us,  and  shook  hands  with  us,  and  greeted  us  as  old  friends, 
in  the  most  good-natured  manner.  We,  too,  on  our  part,  were  very 
f^lad  to  see  them,  for  they  were  very  kind  to  us  last  winter. 

In  the  course  of  the  evening  I  was  presented  to  the  Grand  Duchess 
Dowa-^er,  and  found  her  as  intelligent  and  agreeable  as  she  is  always 
represented  to  be,  and  as  all  the  children  of  Prince  Max  really  are 

November  18.  — .  .  .  •  I  went  by  appointment  this  morning  to  pay 
my  respects  to  Prince  Max.  I  found  him  up  four  pair  of  stairs,  and 
passed  through,  I  should  think,  not  less  than  twelve  or  fourteen 
rooms,  that  looked  more  like  lumber-rooms  than  like  apartments  in  a 
palace.  But  when  I  reached  his  suite,  I  found  it  richly  furnished,  as 
becomes  the  rank  of  one  who  is  the  father  of  a  king,*  and  might  at 
this  moment  have  been  a  king  himself,  if  he  had  not  voluntarily  ab- 
dicated. He  received  me  with  his  little  chapeau-de-bras  under  his 
arm,  which  I  never  saw  him  without,  and  led  me  into  the  Princess 
Amelia's  parlor,  where  she  was  waiting  for  us.  There  we  sat  down 
and  talked  about  Saxony,  which  seemed  to  please  the  old  Prince  very 

much He  talked  well  and  kindly,  and  the  Princess  talked 

with  esinit  for  half  an  hour,  when,  in  courtly  style,  they  rose  and  left 
the  room. 

November  19.  — .  .  .  .  This  evening,  as  in  duty  bound,  we  went  to 
pay  our  respects  to  the  Saxon  princesses.  We  found  the  Princess 
Louise  waiting  for  us,  looking  very  prettily,  but  most  simply  dressed  ; 
and  soon  afterwards  the  old  Prince  Max  came  in  with  the  Princess 
Amelia.  They  were  extremely  kind,  ....  and  talked  pleasantly, 
after  the  fashion  of  princesses,  about  small  matters  that  could  com- 
promise nobody 

November  20.  — ....  In  the  evening  we  drove  out  to  Fiesole,  where 
Mr.  Thompson  of  New  York  has  been  living  two  years,  in  a  very 

nice,  comfortable  villa At  table,  I  happened  to  sit  next  to  the 

Princess  Galitzin,  and  it  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  talked  with  any 
ladv  who  had  at  once  so  much  crood  sense  and  so  much  brilliancv  in 
her  conversation.  After  dinner,  while  I  was  near  her,  Bartolini  gave 
us  an  interesting  account  of  his  residence  at  Elba,  with  Bonaparte, 
whose  sculptor  he  was,  and  who  was  so  kind  to  him,  both  then  and 
previously,  that  he  is  still  a  thorough  Bonapartist.  One  of  the  works 
Bonaparte  ordered  from  him  was  a  series  of  very  large  marble  vases, 
in  which  to  place  lights,  for  the  purpose  of  illuminating  a  terrace 
where  he  walked  in  the  nights  ;  and  Bartolini  was  at  Carrara,  em- 

*  The  Regent  having  succeeded  to  the  throne  in  the  previous  summer. 


56  LIFE   OF   GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

ployed  about  them,  when  Bonaparte  made  his  escape  and  began  the 
adventures  of  the  famous  Hundred  Days 

November  22.  —  I  went  this  morning  to  see  the  Marquis  Gino  Cap- 
poni,  a  person  of  great  distinction  here  by  the  antiquity  of  his  family, 
by  his  fortune,  and  by  his  personal  talents  ;  but  who,  having  the  taint 
of  liberalism  upon  him,  is  frowned  upon  by  the  Court,  and  lives  in 

a  sort  of  morose  retirement I  found  him  livino;  in  a  macj- 

nificent  palace,  one  of  the  finest  in  this  city  of  grand  palazzos,  and 
though  nobody  else  occupies  it  but  his  aged  mother,  I  found  him  in 
the  true  Italian  fashion,  perched  up  in  the  fourth  story,  and  actually 
ascended  an  hundred  and  twelve  steps  to  reach  him. 

He  is  nearly  fifty  years  old,  a  widower,  and  with  no  children  except 
married  daughters,  —  a  tall,  fine  specimen  of  a  noble  Italian,  with 
frank  and  striking  manners,  and  altogether  a  picturesque  and  digni- 
fied appearance.  His  conversation  was  strong  and  bold,  tinctured 
with  politics  throughout ;  and  though  he  lives  with  men  of  letters  like 
Niccolini  and  Becchi,  and  affects,  and  I  dare  say  desires,  to  give  him- 
self up  to  literature,  yet  still  his  cabinet  was  full  of  newspapers,  and 
all  his  talk  redolent  of  public  affairs.  He  was  once  in  great  favor 
with  the  Grand  Duke,  and  used  to  be  much  consulted  by  him  ;  but 
since  the  change  in  Court  politics  in  1830-32,  the  Marquis  Capponi 
withdrew  himself  rather  violently  from  the  government,  and  is  seen 
now  only  as  a  matter  of  ceremony  at  the  palace.  If,  however,  the 
time  should  come  when  liberal  principles  again  shall  prevail  in  Tus- 
cany, I  doubt  not  he  would  exercise  a  controlliug  influence  in  its 
affairs.  He  savors  most  strongly  of  the  noble  old  stock  of  the  Italians 
in  Italy's  best  days,  and  while  he  is  very  frank,  free,  and  winning  in 
conversation,  has  all  the  air  and  bearing  of  one  born  to  command. 

In  a  letter  to  ]\Ir.  Prescott,  written  six  weeks  later,  Mr.  Tick- 
nor  thus  sums  up  his  experiences  in  Florence  :  — 

....  The  society  I  found  still  more  changed,  but  not  for  the  bet- 
ter. Of  foreign,  there  was  a  good  deal ;  but  we  cared  little  about  it, 
for  it  was  merely  fashionable.  Of  Italian  there  was  very  little.  The 
Marchioness  Lenzoni  —  who,  besides  being  the  last  descendant  of 
one  branch  of  the  Medicis,  owns  and  carefully  preserves  at  Certaldo 
the  house  Avhich  Boccaccio  possessed,  and  where  he  died  —  opened 
her  saloon  twice  a  week,  and  received  the  principal  Florentine  no- 
bility, as  well  as  the  men  of  letters,  and  I  met  there  Buonarotti,  the 
head  of  Michel  Angelo's  family,  and  the  head  of  the  administration  of 


M.  45.]  COUNTESS  D'ALBANY.  57 


justice  for  Tuscany,  —  an  eminent  and  respectable  man,  whom  I  was 
glad  to  visit  in  the  great  artist's  house,  and  to  find  surrounded  with 
his  memorials,  and  possessing  a  good  many  of  his  characteristic  manu- 
scripts. I  also  knew  there,  and  at  their  own  houses,  Micali,  the  author 
of  "  Italia  avanti  i  Roniani," — a  lively,  courtly  old  gentleman,  of  good 
fortune,  who  values  himself  as  much  on  his  fashionable  distinctions 
as  on  his  considerable  literary  fame  ;  Niccolini,  the  tragic  writer,  —  a 
rather  savage  republican,  who  fancies  himself  to  have  sympathies  with 
all  Americans,  and  who  is  really  an  interesting  person  ;  as  well  as 
some  others  of  less  note,  whose  names  you  would  not  recognize. 

But  I  missed  the  old  Couiitess  d' Albany's  house.  No  such  exists 
now  in  Florence  ;  and  what  made  it  more  striking,  I  was  offered  for 
lodging-rooms  the  very  suite  of  apartments  in  her  palazzo  over  that 
in  which  I  used  to  visit  her  ;  the  very  suite,  too,  that  was  occupied  liy 
Alfieri,  and  where  I  passed  a  forenoon  once  in  looking  over  his  library 
and  manuscripts.  Au  reste,  she  has  not  left  any  odor  of  sanctity  be- 
hind her  among  the  Florentines.  In  the  latter  part  of  her  life  she 
fell  under  the  influence  of  a  Frenchman  by  the  name  of  Fabre, — 
you  remember  Dido's  conjugiiim  vocat,  hoc  p'cetexit  nomine  culjjcim, — 
and  when  she  died  she  left  him  all  her  property  ;  so  the  Palazzo 
Alfieri,  as  it  is  called,  is  turned  into  a  lodging-house,  and  all  Alfieri's 
books  and  manuscripts  are  carried  off  to  the  South  of  France,  except 
a  duplicate  copy  of  his  Tragedies,  which  Monsieur  Fabre  gave  to  the 
Laurentian  Library.  This  annoys  the  Italians,  and  so  much  the  more, 
because  Alfieri,  not  in  legal,  but  in  poetical  form,  by  a  sonnet,  had  sig- 
nified his  wish  that  his  library  should  be  deposited  in  his  native  city 
of  Asti ;  and  I  remember  Tassi,  who  was  his  private  secretary,  told 
me,  w^hen  he  showed  me  the  books,  that  at  Mad.  d' Albany's  death 
they  would  go  to  Asti.  But  it  has  turned  out  otherwise  ;  and  the 
Italians  console  themselves  for  their  loss  by  abusing  the  wife  of  the 
Pretender  ;  a  satisfaction  which,  I  assure  you,  some  of  the  principal 
men  in  Florence  enjoyed  one  night  at  Madame  Lenzoni's  in  great 
perfection,  at  the  end  of  a  rather  active  and  agreeable  soiree. 

The  want  of  society  —  intellectual,  agreeable  society  —  is  xevy  much 
felt  by  foreigners,  not  only  in  Florence,  but  throughout  Italy.  I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  it  is  even  felt  by  the  Italians  themselves, 
especially  when  I  have  found  persons  of  the  first  distinction  —  as  far 
as  rank  and  family  are  concerned  —  living  in  the  most  cheerless  man- 
ner, sometimes  in  an  upper  story,  and  sometimes  in  a  remote  corner 
of  one  of  their  vast,  gloomy,  and  uncomfortable  palaces,  without  fires 
in  winter,  without  carpets,  and  without  convenient  furniture ;  and 
3* 


68  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKXOR.  [1836. 


this,  too,  by  no  means  the  result  of  their  poverty,  but  of  indolent 
habits  and  perverted  tastes,  which,  while  they  prevent  their  possessors 
from  making  an  effort  for  better  things,  do  not  prevent  them  from 
feeling  there  are  such  things,  and  being  partly  ashamed  that  they  do 
not  enjoy  them.  No  doubt  the  fortunes  of  the  highest  class  have 
been  impaired,  even  within  the  last  twenty  years,  and  men  who  could 
once  receive  in  state  are  now  obliged  to  sell  their  galleries  and  rent 
their  palaces.  This  has  been  eminently  the  case  at  Venice  and 
Bologna,  and  partly  so  at  Florence.  But  this  will  not  account  for 
the  state  of  social  life  throughout  Italy  ;  still  less  for  the  low  state  of 
j     intellectual  culture,  especially  among  Italian  women. 

Being  anxious  to  establish  his  family  for  the  winter,  Mr. 
Ticknor  left  Florence  on  the  1st  of  December,  and  arrived  in 
Home  on  the  5th.  They  took  up  their  quarters  that  same  day 
in  a  large  and  delightful  apartment  on  the  southwestern  slope  of 
the  Monte  Pincio,  where  they  had  a  broad  view  of  the  city,  and 
the  sunshine  to  brighten  them  all  day ;  and  they  had  no  reason 
to  regret  the  choice  during  the  five  months  they  stayed  there. 

JOURNAL. 

December  5.  —  I  think  we  were  very  fortunate  in  securing  at  once 
such  good  lodgings  ;  and,  to  make  us  feel  still  more  at  home,  my  old 
friend,  Mr.  Bunsen,"^  the  Prussian  Minister,  came  in  the  evening  and 
made  us  a  most  agreeable  visit.  He  is  much  changed  since  I  knew 
him  before,  is  grown  stout  and  round,  and  become  the  father  of  nine 
children  ;  but  he  is  just  as  full  of  learning,  activity,  and  warm- 
hearted kindness  as  ever.     It  was  a  great  pleasure  to  see  hun. 

December  8.  —  ....  The  evening  we  spent  at  the  Prussian  Minis- 
ter's, Mr.  Bunsen's,  whose  wife  is  an  English  lady.  There  was  a  large 
party,  consisting  chiefly  of  Germans  and  English.  I  was  introduced 
to  many,  but  remember  few,  except  Wolff,  the  sculptor,  some  of  whose 
beautiful  works  were  in  the  tasteful  rooms  ;  Lepsius,  who  is  now  dis- 
tinguishing himself  in  Egyptian  antiquities  ;  Kestner,  the  Hanoverian 
Minister,  and  son  of  Werther's  Albert  and  Charlotte  ;  Plattner,  who 
has  been  in  Kome  above  thirty  years  ;  Gerhard,  the  famous  archseol- 
ogist,  etc.  It  was,  like  all  such  soirees,  agreeable  in  proportion  as  you 
fall  in  with  agreeable  people.  To  me  it  was  pleasant  because  I  made 
a  good  many  interesting  acquaintances. 

*  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  177,  178. 


M.  45.]  FETE  AT  VILLA  ALBAXI.  59 

December  9.  —  To-day  there  was  a  great  fete  and  dinner  in  honor  of 
the  birthday  of  Winckehnann,  held  at  the  Villa  Albani,  under  the 
auspices  and  presidency  of  Bunsen.  He  had  invited  me  to  it,  when  I 
was  still  in  Florence,  and  he  called  to-day  and  took  me  out  in  his  car- 
riage. The  villa  is  neglected,  but  its  palazzo,  a  fine  building,  is  well 
preserved  ;  the  collection  of  antiques  —  stolen,  literally  stolen  by  the 
French  —  has  been  replaced,  and  the  whole  is  much  in  the  state  in 
which  it  was  when  AVinckelmann.  lived  there,  under  the  patronage  of 
the  well-knoAvn  Cardinal  Albani. 

Between  three  and  four  o'clock  about  ninety  persons  were  collected, 
chiefly  Germans,  with  a  few  English  and  Italian,  and  among  them 
were  the  Eussian  Charge  d'Affaires  ;  Kestner,  the  Hanoverian  Min- 
ister ;  Thorwaldsen  ;  Visconti  ;  Dr.  Carlyle,  brother  to  the  obscure 
■wTiter  for  the  Reviews  ;  Wolff  ;  Plattner  ;  all  the  principal  German  ] 
artists,  etc.  Gerhard  went  round  wdth  all  of  us,  and  lectured  on  the 
Gallery  and  its  most  interesting  monuments  very  agreeably ;  after 
which  we  went  up  stairs,  and  at  five  o'clock  sat  down  to  an  excellent 
dinner  in  a  truly  magnificent  hall,  all  built  of  brilliant  marbles. 

Bunsen  presided ;  Thorwaldsen  was  vice-president,  at  the  other 
end  of  the  table  ;  toasts  were  drank,  speeches  were  made,  both  in  Ger- 
man and  Italian,  by  the  president,  by  Gerhard,  Visconti,  etc.  ;  and 
there  was  a  delightful  choir  of  young  Germans,  who  sang  with  effect 
several  ancient  Latin  hymns  and  choruses,  a  part  of  the  Carmen 
Seculare  of  Horace,  and  some  national  German  airs.  There  was  a 
good  deal  of  the  German  enthusiasm  about  it,  and  this  enthusiasm 
rose  to  its  height  when  Bmisen  —  at  nearly  the  end  of  the  feast  — 
went  round  to  the  neighborhood  of  Thorwaldsen,  and  making  a 
speech,  and  a  very  happy  one,  took  a  wreath  of  laurel,  which  was  sup- 
posed by  chance  to  be  near,  as  one  of  the  ornaments  of  the  occasion, 
and  placed  it  on  Thorwaldsen's  head.  It  was  a  fine  scene.  The  ven- 
erable artist  resisted  the  honor  just  so  far  as  was  graceful,  and  no  fur- 
ther, though  taken  by  surprise  entirely,  for  the  speech  was  so  shrewdly 
adjusted  that  its  full  purport  was  not  intelligible  till  the  ^vreath  was 
on  his  temples.  But  everybody  felt  it  was  well  placed,  and  a  burst 
of  applause  followed  which  must  have  gratified  him. 

He  is  a  noble,  gentle-looking  old  man,  with  an  abundance  of  white 
hair  flowing  upon  his  shoulders  in  a  very  striking  manner.  I  talked 
with  him  a  good  deal  to-day,  both  before  dinner  and  after,  and  found 
him  as  full  of  simplicity  as  he  is  of  genius.  He  has  a  great  deal  of 
feeling,  too,  and  was  much  moved  when  I  spoke  of  meeting  him 
twenty  years  ago  at  Mad.  de  Humboldt's  ;  for  she  was  not  only  one 


60  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

of  the  remarkable  persons  of  her  time,  but  a  very  important  friend 
and  patron  to  him  when  he  needed  friends.* 

December  10.  —  I  went  this  morning  to  see  the  Princess  Gabrielli.t 
In  personal  appearance  she  is  less  changed  than  I  expected  to  find 
her.  In  the  extremely  winning  frankness  and  sincerity  of  her  char- 
acter she  is  not  changed  at  all.  During  an  hour  that  I  sat  with  her 
she  told  me  the  most  extraordinary  succession  of  facts  about  her  own 
family  that  I  ever  listened  to.  Her  father,  Lucien  Bonaparte,  is  now 
in  England,  poor ;  .  .  .  .  the  Prince  Musignano  X  —  Charles  —  is 
suing  his  father  and  mother  for  his  wife's  dowry  ;  Queen  Caroline  § 
is  quarrelling  with  Joseph  and  Jerome  for  the  inheritance  she  claims 
from  Madame  Mere  ;  the  Princess  of  Canino  is  in  Tuscany,  furiously 
jealous  of  her  husband,  and  yet  refusing  to  join  him  in  England. 
One  of  her  daughters  ||  is  Mrs.  Wyse,  who  threw  herself  into  the  Ser- 
pentine River  in  St.  James's  Park,  a  few  years  ago  ;  .  .  .  .  one  son  is 
exiled  to  America  for  having  been  concerned  in  a  murder  ;  another  is 
now  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  under  sentence  of  death,  as  the  prin- 
cipal who  committed  it ;  and  so  on,  and  so  on. 

Of  the  whole  Bonaparte  family  the  Princess  Gabrielli  is,  in  short, 
the  only  one  who  can  now  be  said  to  be  in  an  eligible  position  in  soci- 
ety, or  personally  happy,  and  she  owes  the  whole  of  this  to  her  good 
sense,  to  freedom  from  all  ambition,  and  to  her  truly  simple,  kind,  and 
religious  character.  Au  reste,  she  lives  perfectly  retired  in  her  palace, 
with  her  husband  and  her  little  boy  ;  her  daughters  are  in  a  convent 
for  their  education  ;  she  receives  no  society  and  goes  nowhere,  but  is 
made  happy,  I  doubt  not,  as  she  assured  me  she  is,  by  her  domestic 
relations  and  her  religious  duties.  Certainly  nobody  could  be  more 
cheerful,  bright,  and  agreeable  than  she  was  this  morning  ;  but  though 
the  Gabrielli  family  is  rich,  and  her  husband  is  now  the  head  of  it, 
and  possesses  the  estates  of  his  house,  everything  in  her  noble  and 
beautiful  palace  looked  neglected  and  comfortless.  I  was  sorry  to  see 
it,  for  though  this  is  the  way  in  which  almost  all  ladies  of  her  rank  in 
Rome  live,  vet  one  educated  as  she  has  been  should  not  have  sunk 
into  it. 

*  Wife  of  Wilhelm  von  Hiimholdt.     See  Vol.  I.  pp.  177,  178. 

t  Whom  Mr.  Ticknor  had  known  as  Princess  Prossedi,  eldest  daughter  of 
Lncien  Bonaparte,  Prince  of  Canino.    See  Vol.  I.  p.  182. 

J  Half-brother  to  the  Princess  Gabrielli. 

§  Caroline  Bonaparte,  sister  of  Napoleon  I.,  once  Queen  of  Naples  as  wife  of 
JIurat. 

11  Half-sister  to  the  Princess  Gabrielli.  She  did  not  lose  her  life  by  the  esca- 
pade here  mentioned. 


M.  45.]  PRINCE  AND  PRINCESS  BORGIIESE.  Gl 


December  11. —  .  .  .  .  The  evening  I  passed  at  the  Princess  Bor- 
ghese's,  who  receives  every  evening,  hut  has  grande  recejition  only  once 
a  week.  Guards  of  honor  were  stationed  at  the  gates  of  her  palazzo, 
the  court  was  splendidly  lighted,  and  a  row  of  thirty  or  forty  servants 
was  arranged  in  the  antechamber,  while  within  was  opened  a  noble 
suite  of  rooms  richly  furnished,  and  a  company  collected  just  as  it  is 
in  one  of  the  great  salons  of  Paris.  The  Princess,  indeed,  is  a  French- 
woman, s:randdauu;hter  of  the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucauld,  who  wrote 
travels  in  the  United  States  ;  and  the  Prince,  though  of  Italian  blood, 
lived  at  Paris  for  thirty  years  and  until  about  two  years  ago,  when 
he  came  to  the  title  and  estates  and  removed  to  Rome.  I  brought 
them  letters,  but  I  knew  them  formerly,  both  at  Florence  and  Paris, 
.  .  .  .  and  they  received  me  most  kindly.* 

The  Prince  Borghese  is  now,  I  suppose,  fifty-five  years  old,  very 
simple,  direct,  and,  as  we  should  say,  hearty  in  his  manners  ;  the 
Princess  about  forty-five,  with  the  remains  of  much  beauty,  with  a 
good  deal  of  grace  and  elegance,  and  that  sort  of  good-breeding  which 
puts  a  stranger  immediately  at  his  ease.  She  presented  me  to  her 
eldest  son,  the  Prince  of  Sulmona,  and  to  his  wife,  a  daughter  of 
Lord  Shrewsbury,  one  of  the  most  beautiful  creatures  I  ever  looked 
upon  ;  to  her  second  son,  who  has  the  title  of  Don  Camillo  Bor- 
ghese ;  and  to  her  only  daughter,  the  Viscountess  Mortemart,  who 
with  her  husband,  an  intellectual  Frenchman,  is  passing  the  winter 
in  Rome 

The  rooms  filled  between  nine  and  ten  o'clock.  There  were  a  few 
cardinals,  ....  two  or  three  foreign  ministers,  half  a  dozen  English, 
and  the  rest  were  Roman  nobility,  —  the  Chigis,  Gaetanos,  the  Piom- 
binos,  etc.  I  talked  with  some  of  them  ;  but,  except  one  of  the 
Gaetanos,  I  found  none  of  them  disposed  or  able  to  go  beyond  very 
common  gossip. 

December  13.  —  The  evening  I  passed  at  the  French  Minister's,  the 
]\larquis  de  Latour-Maubourg,  w^ho  holds  a  soiree  once  a  week.  He 
is  a  quiet,  gentlemanlike  person,  whom  I  have  seen  once  or  twice 
before  ;  graver  than  Frenchmen  generally  are,  and,  I  should  think, 
of  very  good  sense.  The  company  was  much  like  that  at  the  Princess 
Borghese's,  but  the  tone  somewhat  less  easy  and  agreeable,  for  the 
Ambassador  evidently  cares  little  about  it,  and  the  Marchioness  has 
not  come  to  Rome,  on  account  of  the  cholera.  He  lives  in  one 
wing  of  the  Colonna  Palace,  and  has  two  or  three  fine  reception- 
rooms 

*  See  Vol  I.  p.  256. 


^ 


62  LIFE  OF  GEOKGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

December  14.  —  I  passed  a  couple  of  hours  this  forenoon  at  Mr. 
Bunsen's.  He  lives  very  agreeably,  but  not  showily,  in  the  Caffarelli 
Palace,  which  stands  on  one  of  the  summits  of  the  ancient  Capitol, 
and  has,  on  two  sides,  the  Tarpeian  Rock  for  the  limits  of  its  gardens 
and  territories.  In  his  neighborhood  he  has  erected  one  building  for 
the  Archceological  Academy,  which  has  existed  at  Rome,  through  his 
means,  since  1829  ;  and  another  building  for  the  sick  Protestants, 
who  are  not  received  into  the  hospitals  of  the  city,  and  whom  he 
formerly  used  to  have  treated  in  a  wing  of  his  own  palace  ;  while, 
within  the  palace  itself,  he  has  made  arrangements  for  Protestant 
worship  in  German,  French,  and  Italian. 

Besides  all  this,  he  is  the  most  active  person  in  whatever  of  literary 
enterprise  there  is  in  Rome,  and  a  truly  learned  man  in  the  wide 
German  sense  of  the  word,  I  went  wdth  him  this  morning  over  his 
academy  and  hospital,  and  received  a  sort  of  regular  learned  lecture 
from  him  on  whatever  can  be  seen  from  the  windows  of  his  palace, 
or  from  the  roof  of  his  hospital,  w^hich  comprehends  a  view  of  all 
the  seven  hills,  and  nearly  the  whole  neighborhood  of  the  city.  It 
was  very  interesting,  the  more  so  from  the  place  where  it  was  given  ; 
and  the  explanations  of  the  Tarpeian  Rock,  and  some  portions  of  the 
Capitol  itself,  were  extremely  curious  and  satisfactory 

December  15. — "We  gave  the  whole  morning  to  the  Museum  of  the 
Vatican  ;  and,  after  all,  it  seems  as  if  we  had  hardly  made  an  impres- 
sion on  this  wilderness  of  statues,  to  say  nothing  of  the  bas-reliefs  and 
inscriptions.  One  of  the  difficulties  in  the  case  is,  that  when  you  get 
into  the  hall  of  the  Muses,  or  the  cabinet  of  the  Laocoon  and  Apollo, 
you  remain,  and  forget  the  multitude  of  other  things  that  are  worth 


seeing. 


In  the  evening  there  was  a  great  concert  given  by  the  Duchess 
Torlonia,  who,  since  her  husband's  death,  is  the  head  of  the  banking- 
house She  gave  her  fete  to-night  in  a  vast  palace  she  owns 

near  St.  Peter's.  As  w^e  drove  to  it  we  found  ourselves  already 
within  its  reach,  as  it  were,  when  we  had  arrived  at  the  Bridge  of 
St.  Angelo  ;  for  the  bridge  itself  was  lighted  with  torches  on  both 
sides,  and  horse-guards  were  stationed  in  the  middle,  —  a  show  which 

we  had  all  the  way  through  the  Trastevere Meeting  the  Prince 

Borghese  in  one  of  the  rooms,  I  sat  down  and  had  a  very  agreeable 

talk  with  him  and  the  Russian  Charge  d'Affaires We  came 

out  very  early,  and  drove  through  the  darkling  streets  on  this  side 
of  the  Tiber  to  the  Capitol  hill,  where  we  passed  a  very  sensible  and 
agreeable  hour,  with  a  small  party,  at  Mrs.  Bunsen's 


M.  45.]  ANCIENT  ROME.  63 

December  17.  —  We  passed  a  good  deal  of  a  bright,  lovely  forenoon 
on  the  Palatine  hill,  the  original  nucleus  of  Rome,  and  its  most 
splendid  centre  in  its  most  splendid  days  ;  the  spot  where  Virgil  has 
placed  Evander's  humble  dwelling,  four  hundred  years  before  the 
supposed  age  of  Romulus,  and  the  spot  where  Nero  began  the  Aurea 
Domus,  which  threatened,  as  the  epigram  in  Suetonius  intimates 
(Nero,  c.  31),  to  fill  the  whole  city,  but  now,  all  alike,  a  heap  of 
undistinguishable  ruins.  It  is  in  vain  to  ask  for  one  monument,  or 
to  try  to  verify  one  record  or  recollection  ;  —  the  house  where  Au- 
gustus lived  forty  years  can  be  as  little  marked  as  that  of  Romulus  ; 
and  all  reminiscences  of  Cicero,  who  dwelt  here  in  the  midst  of  his 
future  enemies  —  Clodius  and  Catiline,  —  of  Mecaenas,  of  Agrippa,  and 
of  Horace,  are  vain  and  fruitless.  The  truth  is,  probably,  that,  hav- 
ing been  the  residence  of  the  Emperors  from  the  time  of  Augustus 
till  the  irruption  of  the  Goths  and  the  capture  of  the  city,  it  was  so 
full  of  wealth  and  works  of  art,  that  it  was  particularly  exposed  to 
plunder  and  violence.  We  walked  about  in  the  Farnese  Gardens, 
and  saw  on  all  sides,  and  especially  on  the  declivities  of  the  hill 
towards  the  Aventine  and  the  Coelian,  huge  substructions,  into  one 
of  which  we  descended,  and  were  shown,  with  a  miserable  taper, 
frescos  and  arabesques,  which,  if  not  of  much  merit,  prove  how  much 
care  and  ornament  were  bestowed  on  the  most  obscure  parts  of  these 
luxurious  palaces  and  temples 

December  18.  —  We  went  to  church  this  morning,  and  find  it  more 
and  more  grateful  to  be  allowed  to  have  regular  Sundays,  though  the 
preaching  is  Calvinistic,  and  clumsily  so.  But  last  winter  we  had 
not  even  this.     After  church  we  walked  in  the  Villa  Borghese 

December  20.  — .  .  .  .  We  visited,  this  morning,  the  remains  of  the 
Theatre  of  Marcellus,  and  of  the  Portico  of  Octavia.  There  is,  after 
all,  not  a  great  deal  to  be  seen  of  them  ;  but  the  antiquarians  are 
much  interested  about  them  always,  because  the  marble  plan  at  the 
Capitol  shows  so  distinctly  what  they  were ;  and  everybody  feels 
interested  in  what  bears  the  name  of  Octa\da,  the  sister  of  Augustus, 
whom  Shakespeare  has  so  well  described  in  a  few  lines,  and  in  Mar- 
cellus, whom  Virgil  has  immortalized  in  still  fewer."'^  The  Theatre 
was  begun  by  Julius  Caesar  (Dio  Cass.,  53-30,  p.  725,  and  43,  49, 
p.  376),  but  was  finished  by  Augustus,  and  dedicated,  a.  u.  c.  741, 
to  the  memory  of  Marcellus,  who  had  been  dead  ten  years  (Plin.,  8, 
23  ;   Suet.  Aug.,  29) 

The  Portico,  which  Augustus  built  afterwards,  for  the  accommoda- 

*  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  II.  Sc.  2,  and  iEneid,  Book  VI.  v,  884. 


64  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1836. 

tion  and  shelter  of  the  people  frequenting  the  Theatre,  was  a  wide 
range  of  buildings,  including  two  or  three  temples,  of  which  remains 
are  found  now  in  two  churches  in  the  neighborhood,  and  several  col- 
umns and  inscriptions  in  the  streets.  No  doubt,  originally,  every- 
thing here  was  in  the  most  magnificent  style,  as  well  as  on  the  grand- 
est plan  ;  for  Pliny  enumerates  some  of  the  finest  works  of  Grecian 
art  as  having  stood  here,  and  among  the  rest,  the  very  Cupid  which 
Cicero  (VI.  contra  Verrem)  reproaches  Verres  with  having  stolen, 
and  which  was  the  work  of  Praxiteles.  Now,  however,  so  little  re- 
mains, —  it  is  all  so  scattered,  —  and  it  is  scattered  through  such  a 
filthy  and  squalid  part  of  the  city,  that  it  requii'es  a  very  decided 
antiquarian  taste  to  enjoy  it.*  .... 

December  23.  —  I  went  to  see  Cardinal  Fesch  this  morning,  and  sat 
an  hour  with  him.  He  is  now  seventy-four  years  old,  and  is  some- 
what, though  not  much,  changed  since  I  saw  him  nineteen  years  ago. 
Indeed,  he  is  uncommonly  hale  and  well-preserved  for  his  years ; 
dresses  with  ecclesiastical  precision  and  niceness,  and  has  the  most 
downright  good-natured  ways  with  him,  as  he  always  had.  He 
talked  a  vast  deal  of  nonsense  about  the  cholera  and  cordons  ;  un- 
dertook to  be  learned  about  the  plagues  of  ancient  and  modern  times, 
but  succeeded  only  in  making  a  clumsy  and  awkward  display  of 
scraps  of  knowledge  which  ....  he  knew  not  how  to  put  together  ; 
and  finally  he  told  me  of  a  plan  he  has  now  in  progress,  for  establish- 
ing an  academy  of  sculpture  and  design  in  Ajaccio,  in  Corsica ;  but  I 
could  not  find  out  that  he  had  any  further  present  purpose  in  relation 
to  the  matter  than  to  erect  a  building,  and  fill  it  with  casts  and  the 
refuse  pictures  of  his  own  admirable  gallery.  However,  if  his  vanity 
gets  excited,  his  legacies  may  be  worth  something.f  .... 

In  the  evening  we  had  a  visit  from  the  kind  Chevalier  Kestner, 
after  which  I  passed  an  hour  quietly  and  agreeably  at  the  Princess 
Borghese's,  where  I  met  the  Chigis,  Lord  Stuart  de  Eothesay,  and 
only  one  or  two  other  persons.  Lord  Stuart,  who  was  thirteen  years 
British  Ambassador  at  Paris,  remembered  me,  and  reminded  me  of 
a  conversation  I  had  with  him  eighteen  years  ago,  which  surprised 
me  very  much,  as  I  never  saw  him  but  once. 

*  Mr.  Ticknor  made  ample  and  carefiil  memoranda  of  his  visits  to  ancient 
remains  and  modern  collections,  and  of  the  lectures  he  heard  from  Bunsen,  Ger- 
hard, and  Lepsius. 

t  There  is  a  College  Fesch  at  Ajaccio,  a  high  school  for  boys,  of  which  one 
wing  contains  pictures  —  said  to  be  eight  hundred  in  number  —  from  Cardinal 
Fesch's  collection,  given  by  Joseph  Bonaparte  in  1842,  and  hardly  one  good 
painting  among  them. 


^.45.]  PALAZZO  MASSIMO.  65 

December  25.  —  A  rainy,  windy,  and  stormy  Christmas,  but  the  first 
really  disagreeable  day  we  have  had  since  we  crossed  the  Alps,  above 

three  months  ago We  went  comfortably  enough  to  St.  Peter's, 

and  having  good  places  there  by  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Kestner,  saw  the 
grand  mass  performed  by  the  Pope,  to  great  advantage 

December  26.  —  ....  I  dined  in  a  gentlemen's  party,  at  Mr.  Jones 
the  Banker's,  with  Mr.  Harper,^  Dr.  Bowring,t  and  a  Mr.  Greg,  X 
whom  I  found  a  very  intelligent  Englishman  of  fortune,  who  means, 
as  Dr.  Bowring  says,  to  stand  for  the  next  Parliament,  for  Lancaster. 
There  were  two  or  three  other  persons  present,  but  the  conversation 
was  in  the  hands  of  those  I  have  mentioned,  and  was  very  spirited. 
It  turned  on  English  reform  and  American  slavery,  and  such  exciting 
topics  as  necessarily  produced  lively  talk.  We  sat  long  at  table,  and 
then  I  carried  Dr.  Bowring  to  Mr.  Trevelyan's,  §  where  there  was  a 
small  party  of  English,  but  none  so  interesting  as  himself  and  his  wife. 

January  2,  1837.  —  ....  In  the  evening  we  went  for  a  short  time  to 
the  Princess  Massimo's.  We  brought  letters  to  her,  but  did  not  deliver 
them  until  lately,  because  they  have  been  in  great  affliction,  on  ac- 
count of  the  dangerous  illness  of  one  of  the  family.  She  is  a  Princess 
of  Saxony,  own  cousin  to  the  unfortunate  Louis  XVI.,  and  married  to 
the  head  of  that  ancient  house  which  has  sometimes  claimed  to  be 
descended  from  Fabius  Maximus.  When  she  is  well,  and  her  family 
happy,  she  receives  the  world  one  or  two  evenings  every  week,  but 
now  her  doors  are  shut.  She  is  old  enough  to  have  a  good  many 
grandchildren,  and  we  found  her  living  quite  in  the  Roman  style. 

We  passed  up  the  grand,  cold,  stone  staircases,  always  found  in 
their  palaces,  through  a  long  suite  of  ill-lighted,  cheerless  apart- 
ments, and  at  last  found  the  Princess,  with  two  rather  fine-looking 
daughters,  sitting  round  a  table,  the  old  Prince  playing  cards  with 
some  friends  at  another,  with  Italian  perseverance,  while  one  of 
her  sons,  attached  to  the  personal  service  of  the  Pope,  was  standing 
with  two  or  three  other  ecclesiastics  near  a  moderate  fire,  whose 
little  heat  was  carefully  cut  off  from  the  company  by  screens  ;  for  the 
Italians  look  npon  a  direct  radiation  of  warmth  from  the  fireplace 
as  something  quite  disagreeable.  The  whole  appearance  of  the  room 
was  certainly  not  princely  ;  still  less  did  it  speak  of  the  grandeur  of 
ancient  Rome. 

*  Charles  Carroll  Harper,  of  Baltimore. 

t  Sir  John  Bowring. 

t  William  R.  Greg,  author  of  "Enigmas  of  Life,"  etc. 

§  Since  Sir  Walter  Calverley  Trevelyan,  Bart. 


QQ  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 


But  we  were  very  kindly  and  pleasantly  received,  and  passed  an 
hour  agreeably.  The  rest  of  the  evening  we  spent  at  Mrs.  Trevel- 
yan's 

January  9.  —  A  course  of  lectures,  to  be  delivered  thrice  a  week, 
was  begun  this  morning  at  the  Archaeological  Institute.  It  is  to 
be  delivered  by  Bunsen,  on  the  Topography  of  Rome  ;  Gerhard,  on 
Painted  Vases  ;  and  Lepsius,  on  Egyptian  Monuments.  The  lecture 
to-day  was  by  Bunsen,  on  the  WTiters  upon  the  Topography  of  Rome, 
merely  introductory,  but  curious  and  interesting. 

January  11.  —  Some  of  the  principal  ladies  of  Rome  are  now  goinc^ 
from  house  to  house,  to  ask  contributions  for  making  arrangements  in 
relation  to  the  cholera.  The  Princess  Borghese  —  whose  duties  lay 
in  our  quarter  —  came  yesterday  to  us,  but  we  were  out,  and  she  left 
a  note  asking  us  to  send  to  her  palazzo  any  assistance  we  are  disposed 
to  give In  the  evening  I  met  her  at  the  Austrian  Ambassa- 
dor's, blazing  with  diamonds  such  as  I  have  not  seen  out  of  Saxony, 
and  little  looking  as  if  she  had  been  begging  all  day,  and  receiving 
sums,  as  she  told  me,  as  low  as  half  a  paul.^  This  morning  I  went 
to  carry  my  little  contribution,  and  was  shown  by  her  directly  to  the 
breakfast-room,  that,  as  she  said,  I  might  see  her  whole  family.  It 
was  a  cheerful  and  interesting  sight.  Beside  the  beautiful  Princess 
of  Sulmona,  the  fine,  striking  Viscountess  de  Mortemart,  the  three 
sons,  and  the  son-in-law,  there  were  the  chaplain,  the  tutor,  the 
physician,  and  one  or  two  other  members  of  a  great  house,  all  round 
a  long,  highly  polished  oak  table,  covered  with  a  substantial  dejeuner 
d  la  fourchette,  served  chiefly  on  silver.  They  all  seemed  happy, 
and  were  very  pleasant  ;  and  I  could  not  help  contrasting  it  with  the 
scenes  of  heartless  show  I  witnessed  in  the  Princess  Pauline's  days, 
in  the  same  rooms.  It  was  one  of  those  scenes  of  the  real  interieur 
of  a  great  house  that  strangers  rarely  chance  upon,  and  I  enjoyed  its 

simphcity,  heartiness,  and  good  taste  very  much 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  Prince  Musignano's,  —  Charles  Bona- 
parte,—  who  lives  in  a  beautiful  little  villa  just  by  the  Porta  Pia, 
built  by  Milizia,  the  well-known  writer  on  Architecture,  and  a  jDart  of 
the  inheritance  from  the  Princess  Pauline  to  Joseph's  children,  f  I 
know  nothing  of  the  sort  in  the  neighborhood  of  Rome  so  pretty  and 

tasteful.     But  the  evening  was  awkward  and  dull The  ladies 

were  all  on  one  side  of  the  room,  and  the  gentlemen  in  the  middle  or 
on  the  other  side. 

*  Five  cents  of  American  money. 

t  The  Princess  Musignano  was  the  daughter  of  Joseph  Bonaparte. 


M.  45.]  ROMAN  PALACES.  67 


CHAPTEE    lY. 

Ronu.  —  Dante  and  Papal  Government.  —  Taking  the  Veil  in  High  Life. 
—  Kestner  and  Goethe.  —  Cardinal  Giustiniani.  —  Letter  to  Mr. 
Dana.  —  Francis  Hare.  —  Sismondi.  — Mezzofanti.  —  Alherti  Man- 
uscripts. —  Lady  Westmoreland.  —  Mai.  —  Vatican  Library.  — 
Wordsworth  and  H,  C.  Robinson, 

JOURNAL. 

January  16. —  Mr.  Bunsen  lectured  this  morning  on  the  Topography 
of  Ancient  Rome In  the  evening  I  spent  an  hour  quite  agree- 
ably at  the  Princess  Borghese's,*  whom  I  found  almost  alone,  because 
everybody  had  gone  to  a  great  ball  at  Torlonia's.  There  I  went  also, 
afterwards,  and  found  a  brilliant  and  gay  fete,  where  were  assembled 
six  or  seven  hundred  people.  The  palace  where  it  was  given  is  the 
same  which  Henry  VIII.,  in  the  days  of  his  Catholic  zeal,  gave  to  Car- 
dinal Wolsey,  and  to  which  the  British  government,  long  after  it  be- 
came Protestant,  continued  to  lay  claim.  It  is  a  fine  building,  espe- 
cially for  the  purpose  to  which  it  was  devoted  to-night ;  but  it  seemed 
strange  that  Torlonia  should  thus  be  the  heir  of  Henry  YIII.  and 
Cardinal  Wolsev 

January  19.  —  After  passing  the  forenoon  quietly,  in  our  usual  oc- 
cupations, we  dined  with  the  Princess  Gabrielli.  It  was  a  little  din- 
ner given  on  occasion  of  the  Prince's  birthday,  and  it  would  not  be 
easy  to  find  anything  more  characteristic  of  the  modes  of  life  here. 
We  were  led  through  three  or  four  large  and  fine  halls,  all,  however, 
ill  furnished,  and  were  received  in  another  where,  round  a  huge  fire- 
place and  a  small  fire,  we  found  our  host  and  hostess  ;  General  Gabri- 
elli, the  brother  ;  Monsignor  Piccolomini  ;  another  Monsignor  ;  a 
young  Count,  who,  at  the  age  of  eighteen  or  nineteen,  is  about  to  be 
married  to  a  little  girl  not  yet  fourteen  ;  and  a  French  lady 

« 

*  Mr.  Ticknor  went  frequently  to  the  Princess  Borghese's  during  the  winter, 
and  on  one  Sunday  evening,  when  he  speaks  of  the  party  there  as  something 
more  brilliant  than  iisual,  he  adds  :  "  Those  who  chose  might  have  the  edifica- 
tion of  seeing  six  cardinals  at  once,  in  the  card- room  at  whist." 


68  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 


Things  looked  dreary  enough,  as  they  always  do  in  these  vast  pal- 
aces ;  but  the  conversation  was  carried  on  with  Italian  vivacity  and 
vehemence,  and  the  boiihomie,  simplicity,  and  earnest  kindness  of  the 
Princess  were,  as  they  always  are,  irresistible.  At  last  dinner  was 
announced,  and  we  were  led  through  the  same  wide  halls  by  which 
we  had  entered,  across  a  magnificent  ballroom  and  through  a  dark  pas- 
sage, to  a  moderate-sized  dining-room,  hung  in  a  careless  way  with 
pictures  by  Perugino,  Raphael,  Claude,  and  Andrea  del  Sarto.  The 
dinner  consisted  of  strange  Italian  dishes,  and  was  served  in  the 
Italian  fashion.  All  the  attendants,  who  were  cumbrously  numerous, 
were  in  shabby  liveries,  except  the  major-domo,  who  was  in  black. 
Some  of  them  were  old  ;  all  were  easy  and  familiar,  as  they  always 
are  in  these  ancient  families,  and  whenever  a  good  joke  occurred  they 
laughed,  and  seemed  to  enjoy  it  as  much  as  any  of  us. 

The  conversation  was  lively  without  any  expense  of  wit.  On  this 
point  the  Italians  are  not  difficult.  They  content  themselves  with  as 
little  of  what  is  intellectual,  in  their  daily  intercourse,  as  any  people 
well  can,  but  their  gayety  is  none  the  less  for  all  that.  Monsignor 
Piccolomini  —  a  great  name  that  has  come  down  from  the  time  of 
Wallenstein  —  says  his  mother  was  named  Jackson,  and  that  her  fam- 
ily is  connected  with  that  of  our  President-General  ;  a  droll  circum- 
stance if  it  is  true.  His  stories,  however,  are  better  than  his  genealogy. 
"We  had  coffee  at  table,  and  then,  after  freezing  a  little  in  the  saloon, 
after  the  true  Roman  fashion,  we  came  home  in  about  three  hours  after 
we  left  it.  In  the  evening  we  had  a  pleasant  visit  from  the  Trevel- 
yans 

January  23.  — .  .  .  .  After  his  lecture  was  over  this  morning  Mr. 
Bunsen  took  us  into  the  Tabularium,  and  explained  it  to  us  in  a  very 
interesting  manner.  It  has  been  fully  explored  only  within  a  few 
years,  and  is  now  one  of  the  grandest  monuments  of  ancient  Rome. 

I  walked  home  —  as  I  have  often  lately  —  with  an  elderly  English 
gentleman,  whom  I  have  seen  a  good  deal  of  within  the  last  three 
weeks,  and  who  is  full  of  knowledge,  wisdom,  and  gentleness  ;  I 
mean  Mr.  Elphinstone,  who  wrote  the  "Embassy  to  Cabul,"  was 
thirty  years  in  India,  was  long  Governor  of  Bombay,  and  refused  to 
be  Governor-General  of  India.  It  is  rare  to  meet  a  more  interesting 
man.* 
V  February  6.  — ....  "We  dined  to-day  at  Prince  Massimo's,  and  met 

there  the  Prince,  his  son  ;  Monsignor  ;  several  other  Italians  ;  three 
or  four  English,  whom  we  are  in  the  hal^it  of  meeting  everywhere  in 

*  Right  Hon.  Mountstuart  Elphinstone. 


^.45.]  PRINCE  MASSIMO.  69 


society,  ....  a  party  of  thirteen  or  fourteen.  Some  rooms  in  their 
magnificent  palace  were  opened  which  we  had  not  seen  before,  which 
are  worthy  of  the  oldest  of  the  Roman  families  ;  particularly  a  large 
saloon  painted  in  fresco  by  Giulio  Romano,  in  one  corner  of  which  is 
the  famous  ancient  statue  of  the  Discobolus,  for  which  the  Prince  was 
offered  twelve  thousand  of  our  dollars,  and  was  able  —  which  few 
Roman  princes  would  be  —  to  refuse  it.  He  is,  too,  more  enlightened, 
I  am  told,  than  most  of  his  caste,  and  the  family  is  of  such  influence, 
that  the  Prussian  Minister  told  me  the  other  day,  that  he  knows  no 
individual  so  likely,  in  his  turn,  to  become  pope,  as  Monsignor.  I 
talked  with  the  Prince  to-day  for  the  fii'st  time  ;  for,  whenever  I  have 
been  there  before,  he  has  been  diligent  at  the  card-table.  He  talked 
very  well,  sometimes  with  scholarship.  He  said,  among  other  things, 
that  the  strangers  who  come  to  Rome  occupy  themselves  too  much 
with  the  arts  and  antiquities,  to  the  exclusion  of  all  consideration  of 
Rome  itself  as  a  city,  w^hich,  under  all  its  governments  and  through 
all  its  changes,  has  so  much  influenced  and  continues  still  so  much  to 
influence  the  condition  of  the  world.  It  was  a  remark  worthy  of  a  ^ 
Roman  Prince  who  felt  the  relations  and  power  of  his  great  name  and 
family,  which  very  few  of  them  feel  at  all. 

The  dinner  was  an  elegant  one,  in  the  Roman  style,  with  sundry  un- 
accountable dishes,  all  served  on  silver  or  beautiful  porcelain,  and  with 
a  great  retinue  of  servants,  all  ostentatiously  out  of  livery.  It  was, 
throughout,  a  curious  and  agreeable  entertainment  to  us,  for  I  am  not 
aware  that  there  is  any  other  great  Roman  house  where  strangers 
are  invited  to  dinner,  or  where  they  can  see  so  much  of  Roman  man- 
ners  

February  11.  —  I  had  a  long  visit  from  De  Crollis  this  morning,  and 
a  long  talk  with  him  about  Dante,  and  other  matters  interesting  to 
me.  He  is  one  of  the  first  physicians  in  Rome,  Professor  of  Medicine 
in  the  University  here,  a  learned  and,  what  is  more  rare,  a  liberal- 
minded,  enlightened  man.  He  told  me,  among  other  things  that  six 
or  seven  years  ago  he  began  to  hold  weekly  meetings  of  three  or  four 
persons  at  his  house,  to  study  and  interpret  Dante,  and  that  they  made 
a  good  deal  of  progress  in  it.  Two  winters  ago  Count  Ludolf,  the  Ne- 
apolitan Minister,  who  is  a  great  admirer  of  Dante,*  desired  to  join 

*  A  month  before  this  Mr.  Ticknor  wrote  :  "  I  discovered  that  Count  Ludolf 
is  a  great  student  of  Dante,  and  I  gave  nearly  all  the  time  I  was  there  [at  a 
hall  at  Prince  Borghese's]  to  a  very  interesting  talk  with  him  about  an  edition 
of  the  Divina  Commedia  he  is  now  preparing.  I  had  not  before  suspected  the 
Minister  of  Naples  of  such  hiterests  or  such  learning." 


70  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

them,  and  the  result  was,  that  the  meetings  were  transferred  to  the 
Farnese  Palace,  and  the  number  of  persons,  including  the  Marchess 
Gaetano,*  and  one  or  two  other  of  the  Roman  nobles  of  some  literary- 
taste,  was  increased  to  fourteen  or  fifteen.  The  thing,  of  course,  began 
now  to  be  talked  about,  and  whatever  is  talked  about  is  imwelcome  to 
a  government  as  weak  and  as  anxious  as  this.  About  a  year  ago  they 
received  a  very  remote,  gentle,  and  indirect  hint,  as  mild  as  priestly 
skill  could  make  it,  that  it  was  feared  the  tendency  of  such  meetings 
was  not  good.  The  hint  was  taken,  and  the  meetings  have  since  been 
discontinued.  Yet  Count  Ludolf  is  a  legitimist  of  unquestionable 
fidelity,  and  the  whole  party  as  far  as  possible  from  anything  politi- 
cal. I  could  not  help  contrasting  such  a  state  of  things  with  that  in 
r_  Saxony 

On  my  way  to  the  Capitol  this  forenoon,  walking  with  Colonel 
Mure,t  I  went  to  see  a  house  not  far  from  the  foot  of  the  hill,  which 
Bunsen  pointed  out  to  us,  lately,  as  an  ancient  Roman  house.  Cer- 
tainly the  walls  looked  as  if  they  were  of  ancient  materials  and  work- 
manship, and  certainly  the  whole  seemed  as  uncomfortable  as  we 
have  ever  supposed  the  Romans  lived  ;  but  so  much  has  been  changed 
in  the  arrangements,  and  so  much  crowded  in  and  upon  the  structure, 
that  it  is  not  possible  to  make  much  out  of  it 

After  the  lecture  Mr.  Bunsen  went,  with  old  Mr.  Elphinstone  and 
myself,  through  all  the  forums,  beginning  with  the  Forum  Roma- 
num  and  ending  with  that  of  Trajan  ;  descending  into  all  the  excava- 
tions, and  visiting  every  trace  and  relic  of  each  of  them,  whether  in 
cellars,  barns,  or  churches,  or  in  the  open  air.  It  took  about  three 
hours,  and  was  quite  curious  ;  for  Bunsen  is  familiar  with  every  stone 
in  the  whole  of  it.  He  showed  us,  among  other  things,  that  it  was 
possible,  when  these  forums  were  in  their  palmiest  state,  to  have 
walked  from  the  Tabularium,  or  iErarium,  on  the  declivity  of  the 
Capitol,  round  by  the  Coliseum,  and  up  to  the  farther  end  of  the 
Forum  of  Trajan,  —  which  he  supposed  to  have  ended  near  the  Piazza 
di  Venezia,  on  the  Corso,  —  and  yet  have  been  the  whole  time  sheltered 
by  grand  porticos  and  in  the  presence  of  magnificent  buildings.  This 
gives  an  idea  of  what  Rome  once  was.  What  it  now  is,  our  senses 
too  faithfully  informed  us,  as  we  passed  through  almost  every  possible 
variety  of  filth,  wretchedness,  and  squalid  misery,  while  we  made  our 
researches. 

*  Now  Duca  di  Sermoneta. 

t  Colonel  William  Mure,  of  Caldwell,  author  of  "Critical  History  of  the 
Language  and  Literature  of  Ancient  Greece." 


M.  45.]  TAKING  THE  VEIL.  71 


February  12.  —  We  had  another  Roman  scene  this  morning,  very 
different  from  yesterday's.  The  young  Countess  Bolognetti,  one  of  the 
famous  Cenci  family,  took  the  veil  at  the  Tor  de'  Specchi,  the  fashion- 
able, rich  convent  of  the  nobility  here  ;  and  as  the  Princess  GabrielU 
had  made  arrangements  for  us  to  see  it,  and  as  the  Princess  Massimo 
—  who  once  passed  four  years  of  her  education  here  —  offered  herself 
specially  to  show  it  to  us,  we  were  able  to  see  all  that  such  an  occa- 
sion affords,  under  agreeable  circumstances We  were  received 

in  the  parlor  of  the  convent,  where  was  Count  Bolognetti,  the  father, 
apparently  about  seventy  years  old,  in  a  full  and  elegant  court  dress 
of  black,  with  a  sword  by  his  side,  lace  ruffles,  and  powdered  hair  ; 
the  Countess  Bolognetti,  his  daughter-in-law,  also  in  full  dress,  blaz- 
ing with  diamonds  ;  several  of  the  nuns,  old  and  good-natui'ed ;  and 
some  of  the  Pope's  noble  guards. 

The  company  collected  fast,  ....  the  elite  of  the  fashionable  no- 
bility of  Rome The  Princess  Massimo  soon  proposed  to  us  to 

go  to  the  church,  in  order  to  have  good  places.  We  found  military 
guards  the  whole  way,  the  passages  ample  and  rich,  and  the  church 
itself  beautiful,  with  marbles  and  velvet  tapestries,  great  wealth  on. 

the  altar  and  in  its  neighborhood,  and  excellent  taste  everywhere 

Soon  after  we  were  seated,  Cardinal  Galeffi  came  and  placed  himself 
at  the  altar,  a  service  of  beautiful  silver  was  offered  him  to  wash  his 
hands,  he  put  on  his  robes,  and  took  his  seat.  Immediately  after- 
wards six  nuns  with  wax-lights  came  in,  and  in  the  midst  the  Countess 
Bolognetti,  richly  but  not  showily  dressed  in  pure  white,  without 
jewels,  and  with  a  crown  of  white  roses  on  her  head.  At  her  side 
walked  a  beautiful  little  child,  four  or  five  years  old,  bearing  on  a 
cushion  a  jewelled  croA\Ti ;  .  .  .  .  representing  an  angel  offering  her  the 
crown  of  heavenly  love.  She  advanced  to  the  altar,  knelt  before  the 
Cardinal,  and  having  received  his  blessing,  returned  to  the  body  of 
the  church,  where  she  knelt  before  a  little  prie-dieu,  looking  pale, 

but  very  pretty,  gentle,  and  solemn The  Cardinal  celebrated 

high  mass  with  all  the  pomp  of  his  church,  the  guards  knelt  and  pre- 
sented arms,  and  there  was  more  or  less  stir  through  the  whole  church, 

but  she  remained  perfectly  motionless When  the  Cardinal  had 

partaken  the  sacrament  he  administered  it  to  her,  and  she  received  it 
with  much  apparent  humility,  after  which,  turning  to  the  Abbess  of 
the  convent,  an  old  Princess  Palla\'icini,  she  knelt  to  her,  and  asked 
her  permission  to  enter  the  convent.  This  being  granted,  she  ad- 
dressed herself  to  the  Cardinal  and  asked  him  to  receive  her  vows, 
to  which  he  gave  his  assent,  and  added  his  blessing  ;  and  she  turned 


72  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1837. 


round  to  the  audience,  and  in  a  gentle,  but  firm  and  distinct  voice, 
solicited  their  prayers  while  she  should  pronounce  them. 

The  nuns  now  took  off  some  parts  of  her  dress,  and  put  on  that  of 
the  convent ;  she  pronounced  her  vows  of  obedience,  seclusion,  etc. ; 
her  hair  was  cut  off  ;  ...  .  the  Miserere  was  sung,  the  service  for  the 
dead  chanted,  and  she  was  sprinkled  with  holy  water,  as  the  priest 
sprinkles  a  corpse.  All  this  happened  in  front  of  the  altar,  as  she 
knelt  by  the  Cardinal.  She  then  walked  slowly  and  gently  down 
into  the  church  ;  knelt  in  the  middle  of  the  pavement  of  marble  on  a 
cloth  spread  there  ;  a  black  pall  was  thrown  over  her  feet ;  she  fell 
gracefully  forward  on  her  face,  and  the  pall  was  spread  over  her 
whole  person  ;  and  with  a  few  more  prayers  and  ceremonies,  what- 
ever belongs  to  an  entire  burial-service  was  fulfilled,  and  she  rose  a 
nun,  separated  from  the  world,  and  dedicated  —  as  she  believed  —  to 
Heaven.  This  part  of  the  ceremony  was  very  painful,  and  it  was 
impossible  for  many  of  us  to  witness  it  without  tears  ;  for  she  was  a 
yoimg  and  gentle  thing,  who  seemed  to  be  fitted  for  much  happiness 
in  this  world.  But  she  now  passed  down  the  aisle  as  a  nun,  having 
first  received  the  Cardinal's  benediction  and  had  the  crown  set  upon 
her  head.  Near  the  door  the  nuns  received  her,  and  she  embraced 
them  all  ;  a  Te  Deum  was  sung,  and  she  left  the  church  with  her  sis- 
ter, another  very  young  and  pretty  creature,  who  is  also  a  member  of 

the  convent A  tasteful  breakfast  and  collation  was  prepared 

in  the  room  of  the  Superior  ;  those  who  chose  went  over  the  convent, 
and  saw  the  room  of  the  new  nun,  which  was  prettily  and  comfort- 
ably fitted  up,  and  the  whole  affair  was  ended 

In  the  evening  Mr.  Elphinstone  made  us  a  visit,  and  stayed  quite 
late.  He  is  one  of  the  most  agreeable  old  gentlemen  I  have  ever 
known,  and  full  of  knowledge  and  experience  of  life.  He  is  the 
person  under  whose  care  Mrs.  Lushington  made  that  overland  jour- 
ney from  India  to  England  about  which  she  has  made  so  pleasant 
a  little  book.     He  was  then  returning  from  Bombay,  where  he  had 

been  governor He  goes  now  to  England  in  a  day  or  two,  and 

I  am  soiTy  for  it The  Trevelyans,  too,  passed  the  evening 

with  us. 

February  15.  —  This  evening  Mr.  Kestner,  the  Hanoverian  Minis- 
ter, came  to  see  us,  and  brought  with  him  a  portfolio,  containing 
about  an  hundred  letters  from  Goethe  to  Mr.  Kestner's  father  and 
mother,  who  are  the  Charlotte  and  Albert  of  Werther's  Sorrows,  to- 
gether with  some  other  papers  and  a  preface  of  his  own  ;  the  whole 
constituting  a  full  explanation  and  history  of  that  remarkable  work. 


M.  45.]  CARDINAL  GIUSTINIANI.  73 

He  read  to  us,  for  a  couple  of  hours,  curious  extracts  from  different 
parts,  and  proposes  to  come  again  and  read  more.*  .... 

February  16.  — .  .  .  .  The  evening  I  passed  with  the  Trevelyana, 
who  had  asked  Dr.  Wiseman,t  the  head  of  the  English  College  here, 
and  an  eloquent  preacher,  to  meet  me.  He  seemed  a  genuine  priest, 
not  without  talent,  very  good  looking  and  able-bodied,  and  with  much 
apparent  practice  in  the  world.  He  talked  well,  but  not  so  well  as 
I  expected 

February  17.  —  Mr.  Kestner  came  again  this  evening  and  read  the 
rest  of  what  I  wanted  to  hear  from  his  letters  about  Goethe,  Werther, 
etc.  It  was  very  curious  and  interesting.  The  fact  seems  to  be  that, 
in  the  first  book  of  Werther's  letters,  Werther  is  undoubtedly  Goethe 
himself,  Charlotte  is  Charlotte  Buff,  and  Albert  is  Kestner,  and  much 
of  what  is  described  there  really  passed. 

In  the  second  book  AVerther  is  undoubtedly  the  young  Jerusalem,^ 
who  was  a  Secretary  of  Legation,  and  met  the  affronts  there  described, 
and  whose  death  and  last  days  are  described,  often  word  for  word,  in. 
Werther,  from  a  letter  sent  by  Kestner  to  Goethe 

February  25.  —  We  took  a  ride  on  horseback  this  morning  out  at 

the   Porta  Pia Afterwards  I  made  a  long  visit  to  Cardinal 

Giustiniani,  whom  I  knew  formerly  in  Sj^ain,  and  whom  I  have  been 

intending  to  visit  ever  since  I  have  been  in  Rome He  was  a 

great  man  in  Madrid  when  I  first  knew  him,  for  he  was  Nuncio  ;  he 
is  a  greater  man  now,  being  one  of  the  principal  ministers  of  the 
Pope,  and  the  person  who  receives  all  memorials ;  and  he  was  near 
being  greatest  of  all,  for  nothing  but  the  veto  of  the  King  of  Spain 
prevented  his  being  made  pope  in  1831,  when  Gregory  XVI.  was 
chosen.  He  is  now  sixty-eight  years  old,  and  quite  stout  and  well 
preserved,  though  lame  from  a  fall  he  suffered  some  years  ago ;  and 
he  has  the  reputation  of  being  second  to  none  of  the  Sacred  College 
in  talent  and  business  habits.  He  talked  with  me  naturally  about 
Spain,  his  adventures  there,  and  his  exile  during  the  reign  of  the 
Cortes  ;  and  finally  his  return  to  Rome,  and  his  nomination  as  Car- 
dinal in  1826.  After  this,  —  somewhat  to  my  surprise, — he  talked 
about  the  conclave  of  1831  and  his  own  rejection.  He  said  it  was 
owing  to  the  influence  of  Colomardes,  who  was  then  Minister  of 

*  This  correspondence  was  published  under  the  title,  "  Goethe  and  Wer- 
ther "  (Stuttgardt,  1854).  The  story  is  also  told  by  Mrs.  F..  Kemble  in  her 
**  Year  of  Consolation." 

t  Later  Cardinal  Wiseman,  Archbishop  of  Westminster. 

X  Wilhelm  Jerusalem,  son  of  a  German  theologian. 

VOL.    II.  4 


r- 


l_ 


74  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [ISS7. 

Grace  and  Justice  to  Ferdinand  VIL,  and  who  wished  to  show  an  ex- 
cessive zeal  in  his  master's  affairs,  in  order  to  increase  his  own  power. 
Colomardes,  he  said,  believed  that  he,  Giustiniani,  had  induced  Pius 
YII.  to  acknowledge  the  South  American  Bishops  ;  but  though  he 
thought  that  measure  a  wise  one,  he  declared  to  me  that  he  had  noth- 
ing to  do  with  it,  and  that  the  Pope's  determination,  in  relation  to  it, 
was  taken  when  he  was  absent  from  Rome.  Colomardes,  however, 
sent  in  the  veto,  and  Marco  was  the  only  Cardinal  who  knew  any- 
thing about  it,  or  suspected  it.  He  told  me,  too,  that  he  doubted 
whether  the  King  of  Spain  knew  it  till  after  it  was  despatched  ;  for, 
ha\T.ng  been  exiled  for  adhering  to  Ferdinand's  personal  rights,  and 
having,  besides,  rendered  him  great  personal  ser\ices,  it  was  to  be 
supposed  the  election  would  have  been  one  of  his  choice. 

"  However,"  the  Cardinal  went  on,  "  it  was  a  great  favor  done  to 
me,"  —  a  remark  which  I  took  the  liberty  to  think  somewhat  affected, 
until,  in  the  evening,  old  Prince  Chigi,  who  holds  the  hereditary 
office  of  shutting  up  the  Cardinals  in  conclave,  and  watching  them 
till  they  elect,  told  me  that  it  was  understood,  at  the  time,  that  Gius- 
tiniani really  preferred  the  place  of  minister  to  that  of  pope.  Per- 
haps he  is  better  fitted  for  it ;  at  any  rate,  he  is  a  man  of  talent,  and 
is  the  only  Cardinal  I  have  talked  wdth,  since  I  came  to  Eome,  who 
has  talked  as  if  he  were  so 

The  followiiig  letter,  written  after  more  than  eighteen  months 
of  European  life,  sbows  that  the  delightful  society  INIr.  Ticknor 
had  enjoyed,  and  the  admiration  and  respect  excited  in  him  by 
many  of  the  distinguished  individuals  whom  he  had  met,  did 
not  conceal  from  him  the  dangers  and  weaknesses  prevailing  in 
the  social  systems  which  he  studied.  His  generalizations  about 
the  state  of  Europe,  and  of  his  own  country,  now  and  after- 
wards, refer  to  conditions  which  have  since  been  modified,  but 
are  none  the  less  interesting  historically. 

To  Richard  H.  Dana,  Esq. 

Rome,  Febrnary22,  1837. 

....  You  ask  me  if  I  cannot  tell  you  something  to  comfort  an 

old   Tory.     I   cannot.     What   Prince   Metternich,   the  Phoenix   of 

Tories,  said  to  me  over  and  over  again,  in  a  curious  conversation 

I  had  mth  him  last  summer,  is  eminently  true  to  my  feehngs,  and 


M.  45.]  CONDITION  OF  EUROPE.  75 

would  be,  perhaps,  still  more  so  to  yours,  if  you  were  travelling 
about  as  I  am,  —  "  L'e'tat  actuel  de  V Europe  rnJest  d^go4tant."  The 
old  principles  that  gave  life  and  power  to  society  are  worn  out ;  you 
feel  on  all  sides  a  principle  of  decay  at  work,  ill  counteracted  by  an 
apparatus  of  government  very  complicated,  and  very  wearing  and 
annoying.  The  wheels  are  multiplied,  but  the  motion  is  diminished, 
the  friction  increased  ;  and  the  machinery  begins  to  grow  shackling 
at  the  moment  when  the  springs  are  losing  their  power,  and  when 
nothing  but  firmness  can  make  it  hold  out.  Indeed,  almost  every- 
where, when  you  come  in  contact  with  the  upper  classes  of  society, 
—  where  in  these  governments  power  naturally  resides,  —  you  find 
weakness,  inefficient  presumption,  and  great  moral  degradation  ;  and 
when  you  come  to  those  who  are  the  real  managers  of  the  world,  you 
find  them  anxious  about  the  future,  temporizing,  and  alternately 
■using  an  ill-timed  spirit  of  concession  or  an  ill-timed  severity.  The 
middling  class,  on  the  other  hand,  is  growing  rich  and  intelligent, 
and  the  lower  class,  with  very  imperfect  and  unpractical  knowledge, 
is  growing  discontented  and  jealous.  The  governments  are  every- 
where trying  to  associate  to  their  interests  the  wealth  of  the  middling 
class,  and  to  base  themselves  on  property.  But  this  is  revolution. 
Personal  interest  will  not  work  like  the  principle  of  respect  to  su- 
periors, and  submission  to  authority  as  such,  and  it  remains  to  be 
seen  what  will  be  the  result  of  the  experiment  in  a  population  so 
corrupt  in  its  higher  classes,  and  of  so  low  a  moral  tone  in  almost  all, 
as  that  which  is  now  found  on  the  Continent,  and,  with  some  qualifi- 
cation, I  must  add  in  England  also.  In  the  United  States  we  have 
the  opposite  defects  ;  but  I  greatly  prefer  them.  ^Ye  have  the  great 
basis  of  purity  in  our  domestic  life  and  relations,  which  is  so  broadly 
wanting  here.  We  have  men  in  the  less  favored  portions  of  society, 
who  have  so  much  more  intellect,  will,  and  knowledge,  that,  com- 
pared with  similar  classes  here,  those  I  am  among  seem  of  an  inferior 
order  in  creation.  Indeed,  taken  as  a  general  remark,  a  man  is  much 
more  truly  a  man  with  us  than  he  is  elsewhere ;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  faults  that  freedom  brings  out  in  him,  it  is  much  more  gratifying 
and  satisfying  to  the  mind,  the  affections,  the  soul,  to  live  in  our 
state  of  society,  than  in  any  I  know  of  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

I  do  not  know  that  you  would  be  any  better  satisfied  with  the  state 
of  the  arts  than  you  would  be  with  the  state  of  society  here.  In 
sculpture  very  little  is  done  that  is  worth  looking  at,  except  in 
Thorwaldsen's  atelier,  where,  indeed,  grace  and  power  seem  to  have 
retired.     The   other  artists  make  abundance  of  long-legged   things 


■— 1 


76  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

that  they  call  Nyinphs  and  Venuses  and  Psyches,  and  a  plenty  of 
chubby  boys  that  they  would  pass  off  for  Genii ;  but  all  poetry  is 
wanting.  There  is  more  depth  of  meaning  in  the  group  that  Green- 
ough  made  for  Mr.  Cabot  than  in  all  of  them  put  together."^ 

Painting  is  still  worse.     Cammuccini  here  and  Benvenuti  in  Flor- 
ence  reign  supreme,  but  there  is  not  a  man  in  Europe  who  can  paint 
•  '       a  picture  like  Allston 

JOURNAL. 

February  27.  —  In  the  evening  there  was  a  great  oratorio  at  the 
Palazzo  di  Venezia,  given  by  Count  Liitzow,  the  Austrian  Am- 
bassador  It  was   Haydn's  Creation,  performed  by  a   chorus 

of  ninety  singers  and  a  band  of  fifty  instruments,  with  Camporesi 
for  the  prima  donna.f  ....  Mad.  de  Liitzow  herself  was  in  the 
chorus,  and  once  sang  in  a  trio  v/ith  a  good  deal  of  sweetness ;  so 
4  much  does  a  love  and  consideration  for  the  arts  prevail  —  at  least  in 
Italy  and  Germany  —  over  the  consideration  of  rank  and  place. 
The  whole  entertainment,  indeed,  was  elegant,  and  was  given  in  a 
magnificent  room,  said  to  be  the  finest  in  Rome,  which  is  opejied 
only  at  intervals  of  years.  Some  notion  of  its  size  may  be  had  from 
the  facts  that  there  were  eight  hundred  people  in  it,  nearly  all  com- 
fortably seated  on  cushioned  chairs,  and  that,  being  finished  in  the 
style  of  the  Temple  of  Antoninus  and  Faustina,  it  was  necessary  to 
make  the  pilasters  taller,  and  the  griffins  of  the  frieze  larger,  than 
they  are  in  that  beautiful  ruin  in  the  Forum,  because  the  proportions 
of  the  room  required  it. 

March  1.  — .  .  .  .  I  went  to  Mr.  Bunsen's  lecture,  which  was  still 
on  the  Forum.  In  the  evening  I  dined  with  Mr.  Hare,J  an  English 
gentleman  of  fortune  and  high  connections,  who  lives  here  for  his 
health,  and  has  his  family  with  him.  He  is  an  accomplished,  scholar- 
like person,  and  has  been  established  here  so  long  that  he  is  to  be  ac- 
counted almost  a  Roman  ;  but  he  is  withal  very  agreeable  and  acute. 
Nobody  was  at  table  but  the  Prussian  Minister,  Colonel  Mure,  Mon- 

*  A  group  representing  a  child-angel  ushering  a  newly  arrived  child-spirit 
into  heaven.     It  is  now  owned  by  Mrs.  T.  B.  Curtis,  of  Boston. 

t  Who,  as  Catalan!  herself  told  Kestner,  drove  her  off  the  stage,  and  reigned 
as  the  prima  donna  in  London,  till  she  had  retrieved  the  broken  fortunes  of  a 
foolish  husband.  For  the  six  or  eight  years  after  she  completed  that  object  she 
had  lived  retired  in  Rome,  and  it  was  esteemed  a  privilege  to  hear  her. 

X  Francis,  eldest  brother  of  Augustus  and  Jxilius  Hare,  authors  of  "  Guesses 
at  Truth." 


M.  45.]  OVERBECK.  77 


signor  Wiseman,  and  Lady  Westmoreland,  who,  if  not  a  very  gentle 
person,  is  full  of  tiilent,  spirit,  and  talk 

Afterwards  we  went  to  Prince  Massimo's,  and  took  Anna  with  us, 
by  special  invitation,  to  see  we  knew  not  what.  It  turned  out  to 
be  a  glass-blower,  who  made  small  articles  with  a  good  deal  of  neat- 
ness, and  amused  some  children  and  grown  people  very  well.  Such 
an  exhibition  would  not  have  been  thought  very  princely  in  Paris  or 
London,  nor  very  remarkable  anywhere  ;  but  the  good-nature  of  the 
Eonians  is  satisfied  with  very  small  entertainment. 

March  3.  — .  .  .  .  In  the  afternoon  we  went  to  Overbeck's  atelier. 
....  He  had  little  to  show  us,  except  the  cartoon  for  a  large  picture, 
which  is  to  be  an  allegory  on  art,  and  is  full  of  his  deep  meanings. 
I  saw  nothing,  however,  better  than  his  Christ  entering  Jerusalem, 
the  original  of  which  I  saw  here  almost  twenty  years  ago,  and  which 
is  now  at  Lubeck.  He  himself  is  gentle,  mild,  and  interesting,  be- 
ginning to  grow  old In  the  evening  the  Sismondis,  with  Miss 

Allen,  made  us  a  long  and  very  agreeable  visit,  uninvited.  He  is 
growing  old,  and  has  given  up  his  "Histoire  des  Fran^ais"  from 
weariness,  and  seems  disposed  to  seek,  hereafter,  chiefly  for  comfort 
and  rest.  He  cares,  he  says,  nothing  about  the  arts,  and  therefore 
looks,  even  in  Rome,  to  social  intercourse  for  his  chief  pleasures  ;  and 
having  an  excellent  and  sensible  wife,  enjoys  himself  with  his  plain 
common-sense  not  a  little.  Their  fortune  is  moderate,  but  equal  to 
their  moderate  wants  ;  and,  indeed,  he  has  lately  been  able  to  spare 
enough  to  make  hapj)y  a  favorite  niece  in  a  love-match,  to  which  her 
friends  would  not  consent  on  account  of  the  want  of  means  between 
the  parties.  It  was  a  beautiful  and  characteristic  piece  of  kindness 
on  the  part  of  Sismondi,  and  made  a  good  deal  of  talk  when  we 
were  in  Florence. 

March  4.  —  I  made  a  very  agreeable  visit  to  Sismondi,  who  is  my 
next-door  neighbor,  and  found  with  him  Barbieri,  the  great  Italian 
preacher,  whom  I  knew  at  the  Marquis  Gino  Capponi's,  in  Florence. 
I  was  glad  to  see  them  together,  and  I  liked  Barbieri  more  than  ever 
for  his  gentleness  and  spirit  of  persuasion.  He  set  out  from  the 
North  of  Italy  upon  an  engagement  to  preach  during  Lent  at  Palermo, 
but  has  been  prevented  from  getting  there  by  the  total  non-inter- 
course between  Naples  and  Sicily.  At  Rome  he  does  not  preach. 
The  authorities  of  the  Church  do  not  wish  to  exhibit  the  powers  of  a 
man  who,  while  he  preaches  in  a  pure,  simple,  and  even  classical 
style,  and  draws  crowds  after  him,  such  as  have  hardly  been  seen  '" 
since  the  Middle  Ages,  makes  yet  very  little  effort  to  raise  contribu- 


78  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

tions  of  money  from  his  audience  ;  and,  thoiigh.  his  faith  is  not  ques- 
tioned, insists  much  less  on  the  dogmas  of  the  Church  than  on  the 
reformation  of  the  people. 

I  went,  too,  to  see  Count  Alberti,  who  has  the  famous  contested 

manuscripts  of  Tasso,  and  made  an  appointment  with  him  to  come 

and  look  them  over.     He  seemed  to  me  to  have  all  his  nation's  acute- 

ness  and  dexterity,  and  was  extremely  polite,  and  somewhat  pre- 

i^      possessing  in  his  manners 

March  5.  — .  .  .  .  "We  went  to  see  Thorwaldsen  in  his  own  house. 
He  received  us  in  a  slovenly  dishabille,  too  neglected  to  he  quite  fit 
to  see  ladies  ;  but  this  is  the  only  way  he  is  ever  found,  and  we  forgot 
his  appearance  in  his  good-nature  and  his  kindness.  He  showed  us 
everything  ;  his  collection  of  pictures,  chiefly  of  living  German  art- 
ists, with  one  or  two  ancient  ones,  and  a  pencil-sketch  by  Rafi'aelle 
over  the  head  of  his  bed,  and  a  few  things  of  his  o"\vn  in  progress, 
especially  the  fresh  model  in  clay  of  a  statue  of  Conradin  —  mentioned 
by  Dante  —  which  he  is  making  for  the  Crown  Prince  of  Bavaria,  who 
intends  it  for  the  grave  of  that  unfortunate  Prince  at  Naples."'^  .... 

Thorwaldsen  has  for  some  years  refused  to  receive  any  fresh  orders, 
and  I  think  for  a  good  while  he  has  ceased  to  do  more  than  to  model, 
and  to  touch  the  marble  enough  to  call  it  his  work.  His  skill  with 
the  chisel  was,  I  suppose,  always  small,  and  a  statue  modelled  b}^  him, 
and  executed  by  such  artists  as  he  could  easily  procure  in  Rome, 
would  probably  be  finer  than  anything  entirely  by  his  o\\ti  hand. 
The  poetry  of  his  bas-reliefs  seems  to  me  to  exceed  anything  in  mod- 
ern sculpture.  He  showed  us  one  to-day  containing,  first,  Apollo  in 
his  car,  followed  by  the  Muses  and  the  Graces,  and  then  a  procession 
to  consist  of  all  the  great  poets,  artists,  etc.,  of  all  ages.  He  has  mod- 
elled it  as  far  as  Homer,  and  if  it  is  ever  finished  it  will  be  a  magnifi- 
cent work  indeed 

March  7.  —  Mezzofanti  came  to  see  us  to-day,  the  famous  linguist, 
who  talks  some  forty  languages  without  having  ever  been  out  of  Italy. 
He  is  a  small,  lively  little  gentleman,  with  something  partly  nervous 
and  partly  modest  in  his  manner,  but  great  apparent  simplicity  and 
good-nature.  As  head  of  the  Vatican  Library  he  is  quite  in  his  place  ; 
besides  which,  he  enjoys  a  good  deal  of  consideration,  is  a  Monsignor 

*  Note  by  Mr.  Ticknor  :  ''The  last  of  the  Hohenstauffen  is  now  buried  so 
obscurely  in  a  church  in  Naples,  that  his  grave  is  rarely  noticed  ;  but  Dante's 
verse  and  Thorwaldsen's  statue  will  prevent  him  from  ever  being  forgotten." 
This  work  was  left  unfinished  by  Thorwaldsen,  but  was  completed  by  Schopf, 
and  set  up  in  the  church  of  the  IMadonna  del  Carmine  at  Naples,  in  1847. 


M.  45.]  ALBERTI  MANUSCRirTS.  79 

and  ca  Canon  of  St.  Peter's,  and  may  probably  become  a  Cardinal. 
His  English  is  idiomatic,  but  not  s[)oken  with  a  good  accent,  though 
with  great  fluency.  The  only  striking  fact  he  mentioned  about 
himself  was,  that  he  learnt  to  talk  modern  Greek,  easily,  in  eight 
days 

March  10.  —  I  passed,  this  forenoon,  a  couple  of  hours  with  Count 
Alberti,  looking  over  the  Tasso  manuscripts.  Cogswell,  Gray,*  Sir  H. 
Russell,  and  Sir  W.  Dundas  were  there  on  my  invitation  ;  and  two 
Italians,  a  Countess  somebody,  and  another.  The  whole  matter  is 
curious,  very  curious.  The  collection  is  large,  —  above  an  hundred 
pieces,  I  should  think,  —  and  begins  with  the  first  note  of  Eleonora 
to  Tasso,  when  he  sent  her  his  first  madrigal,  and  ends  with  a  sort 
of  testamentary  disposition  made  at  St.  Onofrio,  the  day  before  his 
death. 

The  great  question  is  the  question  of  genuineness.  None  but  Ital- 
ians, and  very  few  even  of  them,  are  able  to  settle  it.  Only  two 
things  occurred  to  me  to-day  :  one  was  the  susj^icious  completeness  of 
the  manuscripts  on  certain  interesting  points,  and  the  other  was  the 
singular  way  in  which  they  seemed  to  fit  a  great  number  of  small  cir- 
cumstances in  the  life  of  Tasso  about  which  there  is  no  doubt.  I  did 
not  like  it,  either,  that  Count  Alberti  intimated  nothing  about  their 
questioned  authenticity,  and  explained  very  imperfectly  how  they 
came  into  his  possession,  though  on  some  parts  of  their  genealogy  he 
was  tediously  diffuse.  On  the  other  hand,  the  belief  at  Rome  in  favor 
of  their  genuineness  is  as  strong  as  the  belief  at  Florence  is  against  it. 
Bunsen,  Mr.  Hare,  Count  Ludolf,  and  Marquis  Gaetano  have  expressed 
themselves  to  me  strongly  on  the  subject,  but  there  has  been  no  ex- 
amination here,  and  some  of  them  did  not  seem  to  know  there  had 
been  one  anywhere. 

However,  the  manuscripts  are  about  to  be  published  at  Lucca,  and 
I  think  they  will  not  then  escape  a  very  severe  and  critical  examina- 
tion, from  men  who  will  be  competent  to  it,  both  from  their  literary 
knowledge  and  their  skill  in  such  documents.t 

March  12.  —  I  visited  Cardinal  Giustiniani  this  morning,  and  had  a 

*  Two  okl  friends  just  arrived  in  Rome. 

t  Mr.  Ticknor's  judgment  was  correct.  Count  Alberti  pi-oceeded  to  publish 
the  manuscripts  at  Lucca,  in  1837,  under  the  title  of  "Manoscritti  inediti  di 
Torquato  Tasso,"  So  clearly  was  it  proved,  however,  that  the;>'  were  not  genu- 
ine, that  in  1842,  six  numbers  having  appeared,  the  editor  was  imprisoned  for 
counterfeiting  the  writing  of  Tasso,  See  Midland's  "Biographic  Uuiverselle," 
—  article  by  De  Angelis  and  Gustave  Briuiet. 


80  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

talk  with  him  that  was  curious,  considering  that  he  is  one  of  the 
Pope's  ministers.  It  was  about  the  Abbe  de  Lamennais'  last  book, 
"  Les  Affaires  de  Eome,"  which  has  made  so  much  noise  lately,  and  the 
brief  for  forbidding  which  is  now  on  the  pillars  of  St.  Peter's.  I  told 
him  I  had  just  read  it,  and  he  entered  into  a  full  discussion  of  the 
views  of  the  Court  of  Rome  touching  Lamennais  himself,  whom  he 
treated  throughout  as  a  turbulent  democrat  seeking  power.  He  said, 
when  tlie  Abbe  was  here  in  the  time  of  Leo  XII.,  he  produced  a  great 
sensation,  and  was  greatly  admired  ;  and  that  the  Pope  himself  had 
even  the  project  of  making  him  a  Cardinal,  from  which  he  was  dis- 
suaded. The  present  Pope,  he  said,  had  always  understood  him,  and 
that  the  other  day  the  Pope  showed  him  a  copy  of  the  "  Affaires  de 
Rome,"  in  which  he  had  marked  the  inconsistencies  and  contradictions 
it  contained,  which  are  likely  to  have  been  considerable  in  amount 
and  number,  if  not  in  weight  and  importance.  No  doubt  if  the  Court 
of  Rome  were  true  to  its  principles  and  ancient  usages,  the  Abbe 
de  Lamennais  would  now  be  excommunicated  ;  no  doubt,  too,  they 
would  be  glad  to  do  it,  but  the  state  of  the  world  does  not  permit 
them.     John  Bunyan's  Allegory  is  come  literally  true. 

In  the  afternoon  we  went  to  St.  Peter's,  always  a  great  pleasure, 
and  heard  some  good  music  ;  and  the  evening  was  divided  between  a 
sensible,  intellectual  visit  to  the  Sismondis,  and  a  fashionable  one  at 
the  Princess  Borghese's. 

March  13.  — .  .  .  .  In  the  evening  I  dined  with  the  Countess  of 
"Westmoreland,  who  lives  here  in  much  elegant  luxury  at  the  Villa 
Negroni.  The  party  was  large,  and  among  the  persons  present  were 
Colonel  Mure,  Lord  Maidstone,  Count  Ludolf,  Sismondi,  Madame 
d'Orloff,  —  the  wife  of  the  reigning  favorite  of  the  Emperor  Nicho- 
las, —  the  Abbe  Stuart,  Monsignor  Wiseman,  and  Mr.  Hare.  The 
hostess  is  an  intellectual  person,  something  strange  and  original  in 
her  character,  but  very  pleasant  ;  and  as  nearly  every  one  of  her 
guests  was  more  or  less  accomplished  and  scholar-like,  we  had  a  very 
agreeable  time  and  stayed  late. 

March  15.  — We  passed  a  most  agreeable  morning  in  the  Loggie 
and  Stanze  of  Raffaelle,  in  the  magnificent  halls  where  are  his  tapes- 
tries, ....  and  in  the  picture-gallery,  with  the  Transfiguration,  the 
Madonna  di  Foligno,  and  all  the  other  wonderful  works  collected  in 
these  three  rooms,  the  like  of  which  there  is  not  in  the  world.  I 
am  sorry  to  think,  however,  that  they  are  ill  placed  here  for  their 
preservation.  I  have  constantly  noticed  that  the  Madonna  di  Foligno 
seems  to  have  suffered  since  I  saw  it  twenty  years  ago  ;  and  Temmel, 


M  45.]  HOLY  WEEK.  81 


the  German  artist,  who  has  been  copying  in  these  very  rooms  ten 
years,  and  who  is  probably  more  familiar  with  the  pictures  they  con- 
tain than  any  man  alive,  has  told  me  this  evening  that  they  are  much 
altered  within  these  ten  years.  He  says  they  were  first  put  up  in  one 
of  the  long  halls  in  the  series  where  the  tapestries  now  hang,  and  that 
there  they  suffered  from  the  heat  ;  and  that  where  they  are  now 
they  suffer  from  dampness,  so  that,  as  he  says,  those  most  acquainted 
with  the  matter  are  getting  to  be  really  anxious  for  their  ultimate  fate. 

March  19.  —  Holy  Week  begins  to-day,  and,  like  all  strangers,  I  sup- 
pose before  it  is  over  we  are  to  sup  full  of  ceremonies.  This  morn- 
ing we  went  at  half  past  eight  to  the  Sistine  Chapel,  and  remained 
there  till  one  o'clock,  —  the  gentlemen  standing  the  whole  time,  — 
to  see  the  offices  of  Palm  Sunday  performed  by  the  Pope 

March  22.  —  I  went  this  morning  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gannett  * 
to  see  some  of  the  principal  churches  and  one  or  two  remains  of  an- 
tiquity  It  was,  however,  the  first  day  of  the  Miserere  in  the 

Sistine  Chapel,  and  we  drove  to  the  Palazzo  Massimo,  where  the  inde- 
fatigable kindness  of  the  old  Princess  had  appointed  a  rendezvous  for 
a  few  ladies,  whom  she  was  willing  to  carry  under  special  favor  and 
patronage  to  the  Papal  chapel,  by  a  staircase  different  from  the  usual 

one The  Miserere,  or  -the  Fifty-first  Psalm,  ....  closed  the 

"whole  just  as  deep  twilight  came  on,  and  lasted  five-and-twenty  min- 
utes.    It  was  no  doubt  very  fine After  it  was  over  we  went 

into  St,  Peter's,- ....  and  heard  the  latter  part  of  a  beautiful  Mise- 
rere sung  in  the  chapel  of  the  choir,  and  walked  up  and  down  in  the 
nave  and  aisles  by  the  imperfect  light  of  the  few  tapers  that  were 
scattered  through  the  different  parts  of  the  vast  pile,  and  seemed  only 
to  render  the  solemn  darkness  of  the  rest  of  it  more  visible  and 
sensible 

March  24.  —  "We  passed  a  Roman  forenoon  again  to-day,  going  to 
the  grand  ruins  on  the  south  side  of  the  Palatine  hill,  including  those 
in  the  Villa  Mills,  and  returning  by  the  Circus  Maximus,  the  Tem- 
ples of  Vesta  and  Fortuna  Virilis,  the  Ponte  Rotto,  the  house  called 
Rienzi's,  and  the  Cloaca  Maxima 

April  6.  —  I  went  this  morning  to  see  Monsignor  Mai,  the  famous 
discoverer  of  the  Palimpsest  manuscripts.     It  was  not  my  first  visit 

to  him He  is  now  Secretary  of  the  Propaganda,  and  likely 

before  long  to  be  made  a  Cardinal ;  *  an  easy,  round,  but  still  intel- 

*  Rev.  E.  S.  Gannett  and  his  wife  were  guests  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tickuor,  they 
havmg  lately  arrived  from  Boston. 

t  He  was  made  Cardinal  the  same  year. 

4  *  F 


82  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

lectual-looking  man,  very  kind  in  his  manner,  and  with  more  the  air 
of  a  scholar  in  his  looks,  conversation,  and  the  arrangement  of  his 
rooms,  than  any  Italian  I  have  seen  in  Rome. 

I  talked  with  him,  of  course,  about  his  famous  discoveries,  espe- 
cially of  the  "  Republic  of  Cicero,"  and  of  his  other  publications  ;  but 
this  was  chiefly  when  I  saw  him  before.  To-day  I  took  ]\Ir.  Gannett, 
and  we  gave  our  time  chiefly  to  examining  the  famous  Vatican  manu- 
script of  the  Greek  Bible,  counted  to  be  of  the  fourth  century,  and 
the  oldest  of  all  the  manuscripts  of  the  Scriptures.  It  is  uncommonly 
well  preserved,  except  that  the  beginning  is  wanting,  and  the  Apoca- 
lypse, which  Mai  himself  admits  may  never  have  been  there  ;  but 
these  deficiencies  have  been  supplied  by  a  manuscript  of,  apparently, 
the  tenth  century.  He  has  it  now  in  his  possession,  by  permission  of 
the  Pope,  to  publish,  and  he  showed  me  the  other  day  some  of  the 
sheets.  The  work  is  far  advanced,  and  will  be  out,  he  thinks,  in  the 
course  of  a  year,  preserving  even  the  minutest  defects  and  errors  of 
the  original.*  We  spent  the  afternoon  among  the  frescos  and  oil- 
paintings  of  the  Vatican,  Avhere  —  especially  in  the  Stanze  of  the 
Disputa  and  of  Constantine  —  we  seemed  every  moment,  in  the  mul- 
titude of  subsidiary  figures  and  ornaments,  to  find  something  new, 
graceful,  and  beautiful.  These  rooms  are,  indeed,  better  worth  study- 
ing than  anything,  to  the  same  amount,  which  the  art  of  painting  has 
produced,  and  it  is  melancholy  to  see  how  they  are  going  to  decay. 

April  9.  —  We  dined  at  the  Prince  Gabrielli's,  and  had  much  such 

a  dinner  as  we  had  there  before The  Princess  showed  us  her 

private  chapel,  in  which  mass  is  said  eA^ery  morning  as  an  indulgence 
to  her  rank.  It  is  in  modest  and  excellent  taste.  A  door  opens  from 
one  side  of  it  into  a  sort  of  balcony  or  tribune  in  a  church  adjacent ; 
a  luxury  in  religion  which  the  higher  Romans  much  aflfect.  She  is 
deeply  and  sincerely  religious,  and  could  not  help,  to-day  at  table, 
telling  me,  as  she  has  ©ften  told  me  before,  how  much  she  is  anxious 
that  I  should  become  a  Catholic,  and  that  she  prays  for  it  constantly. 

April  16.  — .  .  .  .  The  evening  we  passed  at  Lady  Westmoreland's, 
where  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Hare,  the  Abbe  Stuart,  and  two  or  three  other 
people  were  invited  to  meet  us,  and  where,  until  half  past  eleven 
o'clock,  we  had  an  excellent  dish  of  genuinely  English  talk,  no  small 
luxury  at  Rome  ;  for,  in  their  respective  and  very  diff'erent  ways,  the 
Countess,  Mr.  Hare,  and  the  Abbe  Stuart  are  three  of  the  best  talk- 
ers I  know  of. 

April  19.  — .  .  .  .  We  w^ent  to  the  Vatican  Library As  a 

♦  Note  by  Mr.  Tickuor :  "  It  was  not  published,  I  thiuk,  till  1850." 


M.  45.]  VATICAN  LIBRARY.  83 


library  in  the  common  and  practical  sense  of  the  word,  it  is  hardly 
to  be  spoken  of  at  all  ;  and  of  the  twelve  or  fourteen  persons  who 
were  using  it  this  morning,  not  one  was  occupied  with  anything  but 
a  manuscript.  Its  size  is  quite  uncertain.  From  Mezzofanti,  from 
Nibby,  from  Mai,  and  two  or  three  other  persons,  who  are,  or  have 
been  employed  as  librarians,  I  have  received  entirely  different  ac- 
counts, making  the  manuscripts  range  from  twenty-five  thousand  to 
thirty-five  thousand,  and  the  printed  books  from  seventy  thousand  to 
one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  Indeed,  it  is  diiticult  to  tell,  for  all 
its  treasures  are  shut  up  in  low  cases,  which  are  kept  locked,  and  give 
you  no  means  of  estimating  their  contents,  but  to  unlock  them  all  and 
count  them.  We  were  shown  at  first  through  all  the  halls,  and  the 
cases  that  contain  curious  works  in  ivory,  ebony,  amber,  and  so  on, 
were  opened  to  us.  It  was  not  much,  almost  nothing,  compared  with 
the  magnificent  collection  at  Dresden,  or  even  the  moderate  one  at 
Vienna. 

Then  we  saw  the  manuscripts,  which  are,  of  course,  precious  in- 
deed, since  the  library  is  the  oldest  in  Europe,  and  their  collection 
l)egan  as  early  as  465,  and  was  put  into  the  shape  most  desirable  by 
Nicholas  V.  and  Leo  X.,  as  well  as  greatly  enriched  by  the  last :  the  i 
Virgil  of  the  fourth  or  fifth  century,  with  its  rude  but  curious  min- 
iatures ;  the  Terence,  less  old,  probably,  but  very  remarkable  ;  the 
autograph  manuscripts  of  Petrarca  and  Tasso  ;  the  beautiful  manu- 
script of  Dante,  copied  by  Boccaccio,  and  sent  as  a  present  to  Petrarca  ; 
the  manuscript  of  Dante,  which  claims  to  have  belonged  to  his  son, 
and  the  exquisite  one  which  is  ornamented  with  miniatures  ;  the  copy 
of  the  work  of  Henry  VIII.  against  Luther,  which  was  given  to  Leo 
X.  by  the  King,  and  brought  to  the  crown  of  England  the  title  of 
Defensor  Fidei ;  and  two  or  three  autograph  letters  of  Henry  VIII.  to 
Anne  Boleyn,  one  of  which,  at  least,  was  written  in  French.  I  saw 
also  two  other  copies  of  Henry  Eighth's  work,  signed  —  as  I  believe 
all  were  —  with  his  own  hand  ;  and,  from  what  I  read  in  them,  they 
were  bitter  enough  against  Luther.  The  copy  sent  to  the  Pope  had 
on  the  bottom  of  the  last  page  this  distich  —  if  distich  it  can  be 
called  —  autograph  :  — 

"Angloru  Rex  Henriciis,  Leo  decimo,  mittit 
Hoc  opus  et  fidei  teste  et  amicitie." 

Truly  royal  Latin  and  royal  spelling,  worse  than  Bonaparte's. 

Among  the  incunabula  I  saw,  as  it  were,  everything  ;  parchment 
copies  without  end,  the  princeps  editions  of  Homer,  Virgil,  Horace, 
—  in  short,  anything  I  asked  for,  except  that  the  poor  little  sub-libra- 


L 


84  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

riaii  hardly  knew  where  to  find  everything.     ^Mezzofanti  was  ill,  so 
that  we  lost  the  pleasure  of  going  round  with  him. 

Among  the  copies  on  parchment  is  one  of  the  four,  known  to  ex- 
ist, of  the  Ximenes  Polyglote,  and  indeed,  if  a  rarity  is  wanted,  it 
may  almost  be  assumed  to  be  here,  whether  it  can  be  found  or  not. 
But  as  to  anything  modern,  anything  useful,  anything  practical,  it  is 
not  to  be  thought  of.  The  nearest  approach  to  it  is  probably  the 
beautiful  library  of  Count  Cicognara,  of  4,800  different  works,  bought 
a  few  years  since.  But  they  all  relate  strictly  to  the  arts  of  design, 
sculpture,  painting,  etc.  One  thing  struck  me  very  much.  In  two 
places  I  saw  the  Edict  of  Sixtus  V.  posted  up,  threatening  with  ex- 
communication any  one  —  librarians  inclusive —  who  should,  without  a 
written  permission  of  the  Pope,  take  any  volume  aAvay.  Can  anything 
more  plainly  show  the  spirit  of  the  government  and  religion  ?  .  .  .  . 

Ajyril  20.  —  Prince  Borghese  invited  me,  last  evening,  to  come  this 
morning  and  see  three  frescos  which  he  has  lately  had  taken  from  the 
walls  of  one  of  his  villas,  where  they  were  jjainted  by  Eaffaelle,  who 
occasionally  lived  there.  I  went,  and  found  him  ill  in  bed  with  the 
grippe,  now  prevalent  here,  and  his  two  sons  with  him  ;  all  very  agree- 
able, and  as  it  should  be.  The  Prince  of  Sulmona  went  with  me  to 
the  frescos.  They  are  small,  extremely  graceful  representations  of 
the  marriage  of  Yenus  and  Mars,  and  have  been  taken  down  and  put 
in  frames  under  glass  with  wonderful  skill. 

April  21. —  ....  To-day  is  the  accredited  anniversary  of  the  foun- 
dation of  Rome,  and  the  Archaeological  Society  celebrated  it  with  a 
solemn  sitting,  and  the  Prussian  Minister  gave  a  dinner  afterwards  to 
about  twenty  artists,  dij)lomats,  and  men  of  letters.  I  went  to  both, 
and  enjoyed  them  in  their  respective  fashions  not  a  little.  At  the 
Society  a  report  was  made  of  the  doings  of  the  last  year,  and  several 

papers  read,  the  best  being  one  by  Dr.  Lepsius At  the  dinner 

were  the  Bavarian,  the  Saxon,  the  Baden  Charges,  Kestner,  Thor- 
waldsen,  Wolff  the  sculptor  ;  ....  in  short,  the  full  representation 
of  German  intellect  and  talent  now  in  Rome,  with  no  foreign  admix- 
ture but  myself.     The  talk,  of  course,  was  of  a  high  order 

April  22.  —  I  went  by  apj^ointment  this  morning  to  Thorwaldsen's, 
and  had  a  long  talk  with  him  about  sundry  matters  connected  with 
the  arts,  in  continuation  of  a  conversation  begun  yesterday  at  din- 
ner. He  was  very  interesting,  for  he  talks  well,  and  seems,  at  least, 
to  have  a  good  deal  of  earnestness  and  miction.  Just  now  he  is  much 
troubled  at  being  obliged  to  go  to  Copenhagen  to  superintend  the  j^ut- 
ting  up  his  great  works  there 


M.  45.]  LEAVING  ROME.  85 


A'pril  23.  —  I  went  to  see  Cardinal  Giustiniani  this  morning,  think- 
ing that,  as  one  of  the  Pope's  ministers,  he  could  give  me  some  light 
upon  the  future  plans  of  the  government  about  quarantines.  But  it 
was  plain  that  he  knew  little  or  nothing  about  it 

A^ril  24.  —  The  Prussian  Minister,  with  his  usual  mdefatigable 
kindness,  came  this  morning  and  settled  the  question  about  Naples  for 
us.  He  had  been  to  the  Cardinal  Secretary  of  State's  Office,  and  read 
the  despatches  received  to-day  from  the  Nuncio,  and  the  measures  of 
the  government  here  in  consequence,  in  order  to  be  able  to  tell  us  the 

whole  truth After  we  had  settled  this  point  I  had  a  long  and 

interesting  talk  with  Mr.  Bunsen  on  matters  relating  to  the  Roman 
government  and  society,  about  which  he  feels  all  the  interest  of  one 
who  has  lived  here  twenty  very  active  and  happy  years,  where  he  was 
married,  and  where  his  nine  children  were  born  to  him  ;  but  though 
he  loves  Rome  as  few  Romans  do,  no  man  sees  more  clearly  its  present 
degraded  state  and  its  coming  disasters. 

April  25.  —  ....  We  dined  at  Prince  Musignano's,  a  great  din- 
ner given  by  him  on  his  being  made  a  Roman  Prince,  in  his  own  right, 
by  the  Pope.  Two  or  three  Cardinals  were  there  ;  the  Mexican  Min- 
ister ;  Monsignors  four  or  five,  and  among  them  Capuccini,  perhaps  the 
most  miportant  person  in  the  Roman  government ;  Alertz;^  Prince 
Corsini ;  and  so  on.  It  was  a  luxurious  and  elegant  dinner,  very  well 
managed  as  to  conversation.  Au  reste,  Cardinal  Odescalchi,  the  Mexi- 
can, and  Alertz,  with  whom  I  sat,  were  very  agreeable,  the  Cardinal 
curious  about  America,  and  thoroughly  ignorant.  Capuccini  gave  no 
hopes  about  the  cordons.  So,  no  doubt,  we  decided  well  not  to  go  to 
Naples. 

After  a  pleasant  excursion  to  Albano  and  Frascati,  in  all  the 
radiance  of  an  Italian  spring,  and  accompanied  by  their  friends 
Gray  and  Cogswell,  and  young  Ward,  also  from  Boston,  they 
returned  to  Rome  for  a  single  night  before  setting  out  for  the 
N'orth.  An  agreeable  incident  occurred  on  that  last  evening, 
•  which  is  thus  described  in  the  Journal :  — 

I  was  just  going  out  to  make  a  visit  to  Mr.  Bunsen,  when  I  met  a 
message  from  Miss  Mackenzie  of  Seaforth,  desiring  me  to  come  to 
her,  as  there  was  a  gentleman  at  her  house  who  had  asked  to  see  me. 
1  went,  and  to  my  great  surprise  found  Wordsworth  with  his  Jidus 

*  A  German,  physician  to  the  Pope. 


86  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

Achates,  Kobinson  of  the  Temple."^  We  had  some  excellent  talk,  and 
then  both  of  them  came  home  with  me.  They  came  to  Rome  yester- 
day, and  will  stay  here  two  or  three  weeks,  after  which  they  travel 
slowly  to  the  North,  and  go  to  the  Tyrol  and  Upper  Austria.  I  am 
not  without  the  hope  of  meeting  them  again,  ....  or  I  should  be  ex- 
tremely sorry  to  see  them  but  for  such  an  instant,  Wordsworth  has, 
of  course,  seen  little  of  Rome  except  St.  Peter's,  but  that  has  produced 
its  full  poetical  effect  upon  him.  It  was  in  talking  about  this  that 
we  finished  our  last  evening  in  Rome. 

April  28.  —  At  hall"  past  eight,  as  we  were  enjoying  our  last  view  of 
Rome  from  the  Pincio,  we  saw  our  carriage  cross  the  Piazza  del  Popolo 
beneath  us.  We  hastened  down  to  it,  and  in  a  few  moments  we  left 
behind  us  the  Porta  del  Popolo,  fumum  et  opes,  strepitumque  liomce, 
if,  indeed,  such  words  can  be  applied  any  longer  to  this  city  of  the  past. 
We  crossed  the  Ponte  Molle,  ....  looking  back  often  to  the  dome 
of  St.  Peter's  and  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo,  as  we  caught  glimpses  of 
them  between  the  villas  and  over  the  hills. 

*  Mr.  H.  C.  Robinson  in  his  Diary  says :  "  We  drank  tea  with  Miss  Macken- 
zie. She  had  sent  messages  to  ColUns  and  Kestner,  but  neither  came.  On  the 
other  hand,  by  mere  accident  seeing  a  card  with  Mr.  Ticknor's  name,  1  spoke 
of  his  being  a  friend  of  Wordsworth ;  on  which  she  instantly  sent  to  him,  and, 
as  he  lived  next  door,  he  was  soon  with  us,  and  greatly  pleased  to  see  Words- 
worth, before  setting  off  to-morrow  for  Florence." 


M  45.]  FLORENCE.  87 


CHAPTER    Y. 

Florence.  —  Pisa.  —  Lucca.  —  Milan.  —  Venice.  —  Passes  of  the  Alps.  — 

Wordsworth.  —  Heidelberg. 

A  SLOW  and  lingering  journey  from  Eome  to  Florence,  by 
the  Perugia  route,  in  exquisite  spring  weather,  could  not 
be  otherwise  than  delightful,  and  in  Perugia  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tre- 
velyan  added  a  zest  to  every  pleasure  by  their  presence.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Ticknor  reached  Florence  on  the  5tli  of  May,  and  left 
it  on  the  20th. 

Florence,  May  6. —  ....  Having  letters  to  them,  I  gave  the 
evening  to  the  Bonapartes.  Louis  —  Count  of  St.  Leu  —  lives  in  a 
good  palazzo,  Lung'  Arno.  I  was  received  by  two  gentlemen  in  wait- 
ing, and  found  him  in  his  salon ;  a  fat,  plethoric,  easy  old  gentleman, 
nearly  a  fixture  in  his  elbow-chair.  He  talked  well  enough,  and  very 
good-naturedly,  about  everj^thing  except  French  politics,  in  relation 
to  which  he  was  bitter,  and  accused  the  present  government  of  a  want 
of  bonne  foi  et  loyaute,  accusations  which  sounded  oddly  from  one  of 
his  name  and  kindred.  Several  persons  came  in,  and  I  should  think 
he  leads  an  agreeable  life  here,  in  rather  pleasant  society.  But  I  was 
vexed  to  have  one  Italian  address  him  as  Sua  Maestd.  The  good-tem- 
pered Count  cared  so  little  about  royalty  when  he  was  really  a  king, 
that  I  do  not  think  he  ought  to  permit  himself  to  be  poorly  flattered 
now  with  the  buried  title. 

At  the  Countess  Survillier's  —  the  wife  of  Joseph  —  I  found  much 
the  same  state  of  things,  but  perhaps  a  little  more  air  of  lady-like 
comfort  and  a  little  less  ceremony.  She  is  feeble,  and  is  only  seen 
wrapped  in  shawls  on  her  sofa,  where  her  daughter,  the  Princess  Char- 
lotte, is  devoted  to  her.  Everything  about  her  seemed  gentle  and  in 
good  taste,  and  her  manners  were  excellent.  The  Princess  is  plain  in 
person  and  face,  but  has  vivacity  in  conversation,  and*  a  good  deal  of 
talent  in  the  arts.  She  is  the  widow  of  that  son  of  Louis  who  died  of 
wounds  received  in  the  insurrection  of  1831,  and  is  much  loved  and 


88  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S37. 

valued  by  her  family  for  her  good  qualities.  Several  persons  came  in 
"while  I  was  there,  and  among  them  the  Princess  Jablonowski,  whom 
I  knew  formerly  as  the  beautiful  Anna  Jouberton."^  She  has  been 
married  twice,  the  first  time  to  Prince  Ercolani,  and  a  few  years  ago 
to  her  present  husband,  and  is  still  a  fine-looking  person,  though  in 
feeble  health.  She  seemed  to  like  to  remember  the  olden  times  of 
her  early  youth. 

But  I  did  not  stop  long,  for  the  Princess  Charlotte  told  me  that  the 
Marchioness  Lenzoni  would  not  receive  after  to-night,  and  that  she  ex- 
pected me.  So  I  accompanied  her  there,  and  found  Niccolini,  Forti, 
two  or  three  artists,  and  a  room  full  of  other  similar  people,  all  very 
pleasant,  and  stayed  there  till  eleven  o'clock. 

May  15.  —  ....  The  evening  I  spent  with  a  small  party  at  the 
Prince  de  Montfort's,  —  Jerome  Bonaj^arte's,  —  who  lives  here  in  more 
elegance  than  any  of  his  family,  and  in  excellent  taste.  His  beauti- 
ful daughter  did  the  honors  of  the  house  with  grace,  but  there  is  a 
shade  of  melancholy  over  her  fair  features  not  to  be  mistaken.  She 
wa%  engaged  to  be  married  to  her  cousin  Louis,  who  attempted  that 
foolish  insurrection  last  autumn  at  Strasburg,  and  who  is  now  in 
America,  having  given  his  parole  not  to  return  for  ten  years,  without 
the  consent  of  France.t  .... 

May  16.  —  It  being  a  plain  duty  of  courtly  civility,  we  went  to-day 
to  pay  our  respects  to  Prince  Maximilian  and  the  Princess  Amelia. 
....  They  are  now  in  villeggiatura  at  Castello,  a  small  villa  of  the 
Grand  Duke,  three  or  four  miles  from  the  citv.  The  drive  to  it  was 
beautiful,  ....  and  everything  is  now  in  the  freshness  and  luxuri- 
ance of  spring They  received  us  with  kindness  and  emjoresse- 

ment,  and  talked  upon  subjects  which  they  knew  would  be  agreeable 
to  us.  I  was  struck,  however,  with  their  air  and  manner  when  they 
spoke  of  the  present  meeting  of  the  Diet  or  Estates  in  Saxony,  which 
is  an  innovation  brought  in  by  the  Constitution  of  1831.  Their  coun- 
tenances fell  at  once,  and  their  tone  was  as  of  something  unpleasant ; 
for  though  the  Diet  has  never  done  anything  that  could  annoy  the 
reigning  family,  and  though  Prince  Max,  and  especially  his  daughter, 

*  Daughter  of  Madame  Lucien  Bonaparte,  Princess  Canino,  by  her  first  hus- 
band. 

t  Note  by  Mr.  Ticknor  :  "  This  fact  about  his  parole  was  mentioned  to  me  by 
his  father's  Chevaher  de  Compagnie,  and  therefore  it  seems  difficult  to  dishe- 
lieve  it ;  but  the  young  man  is  returned  to  Europe  ab-eady,  — July,  1837,  — and 
denies  having  given  any  such  promise.  The  French  government,  however,  in- 
sists that  he  did."    The  young  lady  was  the  Princess  Mathilde. 


M.  45.]  PETRAIA.  80 


are  persons  of  truly  good  sense,  tlie  instincts  of  aristcjcracy  could  not 
be  quite  suppressed.  There  is  not  a  drop  of  its  blood  in  Europe  that 
does  not  tingle  at  the  name  of  a  representative  government. 

The  Grand  Duke  having  desired  me  to  let  him  know  when  I  should 
be  here  again,  I  desired  the  French  Minister  to  give  notice  to  the 
Master  of  Ceremonies,  ....  and  I  suppose  he  knew  from  the  Sax(jns 
that  I  was  to  visit  them  to-day.  While,  therefore,  we  were  quietly 
talking,  a  Court  messenger  came  in,  and  announced  that  the  Grand 
Duke  would  receive  me  immediately  if  I  would  come  to  Petraia, 
another  little  villa  a  quarter  of  a  mile  off.  ....  The  annunciation 
produced  quite  a  stir,  for  it  made  it  necessary  for  the  Saxon  princes 

to  dismiss  us  at  once However,  there  had  been  some  talk  of 

our  seeing  a  prospect,  and  the  Princess  Amelia  hurried  us  up  stairs  — 
througli  servants'  halls,  antechambers,  and  once  through  a  room  where 
women  were  ironing  clothes  —  to  a  saloon,  where  we  could  see  the 
city,  the  valley  of  the  Arno,  and  a  long  stretch  of  the  river  and  of  the 
richest  country  in  the  world.     But  we  could  stop  only  an  instant  to 

enjoy  it We  drove  up  the  hill  to  Petraia,  which  we  found  an 

old  building  that  had  belonged  to  the  Medici,  modernized  and  fitted 
up  as  for  a  common  family.  Nothing  announced  the  presence  of  the 
Prince  but  the  guards. 

A  livery  servant  showed  me  up  stairs  to  the  antechamber,  and 
while  he  went  to  make  known  to  the  Grand  Duke  that  I  was  there,  I 
looked  into  a  little  ancient  chapel,  with  some  pretty  good  frescos  in 

it,  and  a  very  good  copy  of  the  Madonna  dell'  Impannata The 

Grand  Duke  received  me  in  a  little  room  which  he  uses  as  a  cabinet 
de  travail,  with  bare  walls,  no  carpet,  and  only  a  few  chairs,  and  a 
table  with  papers  and  portfolios  on  it,  for  the  whole  of  its  furniture. 
....  After  the  first  formal  compliments  were  over,  I  spoke  of  the 
Maremme.  It  is  a  favorite  subject  with  him,  for  he  has  spent  im- 
mense sums  of  money  to  rescue  them  from  the  malaria,  and  do,  on 
that  part  of  the  coast,  what  Peter  Leopold  did  for  the  now  beautiful 
Val  di  Chiana.  He  talked  well  about  it,  but  it  remains  still  doubtful 
whether  his  treasure  and  labors  have  not  been  thrown  away.  Taking 
up  Dr.  Baird's  French  "  History  of  American  Temperance  Societies," 
he  made  many  inquiries  about  them  ;  said  there  was  very  little  intem- 
perance in  Tuscany  ;  spoke  of  spirituous  liquor  as  an  unnatural,  arti- 
ficial, noxious  beverage,  but  treated  wine,  like  a  true  Italian,  as  a  gift 
of  God,  and  one  of  the  comforts  and  consolations  of  life,  as  healthy, 
and  as  nourishing.  Coming  accidentally  upon  the  subject  of  the 
Medici,  he  spoke  with  great  interest  and  admiration  of  Lorenzo  ;  said 


90  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

there  were  great  quantities  of  his  letters  on  public  affairs,  and  many 
to  his  friends,  in  the  archives  of  the  state  here,  those  on  public  affairs 
being  generally  in  cipher  ;  that  they  were  almost  all  written  with  his 
own  hand  ;  and  that  Lorenzo  was  so  laborious  in  his  habits,  that  he 
had  found  seventeen  such,  written  in  a  single  day,  most  of  them  long, 
and  some  important.  Of  the  poetry,  he  said  he  had  published  all  he 
could  find,  except  such  portions  as  were  indelicate,  which  he  felt  it  a 
duty  to  suppress  ;  and  he  ended  by  saying  he  should  send  me  a  copy 
of  it,  having  still,  he  added,  two  or  three  left.  The  whole  literary 
credit  of  the  work  he  attributed  to  the  Abbe  Fiacchi,''''  and  said  he 
was  himself  only  a  collaborator,  directed  how  it  should  be  printed, 
and  that  one  hundred  and  fifty  copies  should  be  struck  off.  He  in- 
tended, after  this,  to  have  published  the  letters  of  Lorenzo  ;  but  just  at 
that  moment  he  came  to  the  government,  by  the  death  of  his  father, 
and  so  the  project  has  been  given  up. 

"While  this  conversation  was  going  on  the  Grand  Duchess  sent  to 
him  twice,  to  say  it  was  time  to  go  to  dinner  with  Prince  Max,  .... 
but  it  was  plain  he  liked  to  talk  about  Lorenzo,  and  he  had  his  talk 
out.  At  last,  at  the  end  of  an  hour,  he  dismissed  me  in  the  usual 
form,  and  I  went  to  the  grounds  behind  the  chateau,  where  Mrs.  T. 

had  been  sketching Just  as  we  were  going  to  our  carriage,  the 

Duke  came  along  on  foot,  with  his  secretary.  He  stopped  an  instant, 
and  pointed  out  to  us  a  little  villa  near,  where  Varchi  lived,  and 
wrote  his  "Istorie  Florentine"  ;  and  then,  as  the  Grand  Duchess  came 
by,  he  got  into  the  carriage  with  her  and  drove  off. 

May  18. — We  went  to  the  gallery  this  morning,  and  after  going 
for  a  short  time  through  its  principal  rooms,  ....  we  sat  ourselves 
doAvn  to  the  collection  of  original  drawings  by  Perugino,  Eaffaelle, 

etc.,  and  had  a  luxurious  hour  over  them Afterwards  we  drove 

and  climbed  to  San  Miniato  in  Monte,  a  grand  old  church  long  since 
deserted,  where  we  found  old  pictures  and  frescos  in  abundance,  .... 
and  a  magnificent  view  of  the  ever-beautiful  valley  of  the  Arno, 

and  the  ever-picturesque  Florence When  shall  I  see  the  like 

again  ? 

We  dined  in  the  evening  at  the  French  Minister's,  where  every- 
thing was  as  tasteful  and  as  comfortable  as  possible,  and  where  we 
met  the  Belgian  Minister,  Count  Vilain  Quatorze,  and  his  wife  ;  the 

*  Note  by  Mr.  Ticknor :  "  It  is  to  Fiacchi  the  Grand  Puke  alludes  in  his 
prefatory  letter  to  the  Accademia  della  Crusca,  — a  letter,  by  the  by,  which  Ital- 
ian scholars  say  is  much  better  written  than  the  reply  from  the  Academy,  which 
follows  it.     The  Abbe  Zauoni,  also,  had  something  to  do  with  the  edition." 


M.  45.]  BOCCACCIO'S   HOUSE.  91 


Sardinian,  Count  Broglia  di  Monbello  ;  Mr.  Abercrombie,  son  of  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  ;  the  Duke  de  Dino,  Talley- 
rand's nephew  and  heir  ;  and  two  or  three  other  persons Mr. 

Abercrombie,  who  was  formerly  at  Berlin,  talked  about  the  private 
dislikes  of  Ancillon  and  Humboldt  in  a  very  amusing  manner. 

On  first  leaving  Florence  for  the  N'orth,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ticknor 
made  a  visit  of  one  night  to  the  Marchesa  Lenzoni,  at  her  villa 
at  Certaldo. 

Just  before  entering  the  last  [the  modem  village  of  Certaldo],  the 
Medici  arms,  over  rather  an  imposing  gateway,  informed  us  that  we 
had  reached  the  villa  of  the  Marchioness  Lenzoni,  who  had  invited  us 
to  come  and  pass  a  day  with  her,  and  see  whatever  remained  of  Boc- 
caccio's time,  all  of  it  being  on  her  estates. 

She  received  us  very  kindly,  and  settled  us  at  once  in  excellent  and 
comfortable  rooms.  She  then  sent  for  her /a#f ore, — or  man  of  busi- 
ness, —  for  the  priest  of  the  place,  and  for  a  Florence  lawyer,  and  put 
us  into  their  hands  to  show  us  what  we  wanted  to  see  in  Certaldo, 
being  herself  a  little  indisposed.  We  passed  through  the  lower  vil- 
lage, ....  and  then,  climbing  a  precipitous  hill,  entered  the  little 
nest  of  stone  houses  where  Boccaccio's  fathers  lived,  and  where  he 
himself  died  and  was  buried.  Everything  seemed  still  to  belong  to 
the  Middle  Ages,  so  primitive  was  the  look  of  the  houses  and  the 
people. 

Of  Boccaccio's  house,  —  which  belongs  to  Mad.  Lenzoni,  —  there 
is  now  remaining  a  tower,  and  a  series  of  small  rooms  running  up 
three  stories  on  each  side  of  it,  all  most  cheerless  and  uncomfortable, 
—  according  to  our  present  standard  of  comfort,  —  but  truly  marking 
his  times.  Mad.  Lenzoni  has  put  some  old  furniture  in  it,  the  frag- 
ments of  his  tombstone,  the  early  editions  of  his  works,  and  a  very 
good  fresco  of  Boccaccio  himself,  by  Benvenuti,  the  best  of  the  living 
Florentine  artists.  The  whole  is  in  excellent  taste,  and  cared  for  as 
such  a  spot  ought  to  be  ;  Mad.  Lenzoni's  intention  being  to  fill  the 
principal  room  with  whatever  may  best  serve  to  recall  the  memory 
of  the  great  man  who  died  in  it.  We  went  to  the  church  where  he 
lies  buried,  and  where  is  the  tablet  he  erected  to  his  father  ;  to  the 
vicar's  house,  which  is  just  as  it  was  in  the  fourteenth  century  ;  and, 
indeed,  walked  over  most  of  the  little  town,  and  through-  its  precipi- 
tous streets,  finding  everything  curious,  and  very  little  to  remind  us 
of  days  less  recent  than  Boccaccio's.  The  ^'iews  from  the  top  of  the 
tower  and  from  all  the  heights  about  are  fine. 


92  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

In  the  evening  we  had  a  specimen  of  the  genuine  Italian  villeggia- 
tura  that  was  curious.  Mad.  Lenzoni,  as  the  lady  of  the  land,  opens 
her  saloon  every  evening  to  all  her  tenants  who  are  of  condition  to  be 
received  in  it ;  a  great  pleasure  to  them,  and  the  only  one  of  the  sort, 

no  doubt,  that  they  get  in  the  year As  soon  as  the  clock  struck 

eight  they  appeared  ;  the  Florence  lawyer,  the  schoolmaster,  the  priest 
of  the  up2:)er  and  the  priest  of  the  lower  villages,  the  doctor,  his  wife 
and  her  sister.  They  were  all  respectable  people,  who  came  in  their 
every-day  dresses  and  in  the  simplest  manner,  to  enjoy  themselves  at 
the  great  lady's  conversazione.  But  it  was  all  done  in  a  very  business- 
like way.  As  soon  as  they  came  in,  two  or  three  packs  of  well-used 
cards  were  produced,  and  everybody  played  except  Mad.  Lenzoni,  the 
doctor,  —  who  from  fatigue  slept  a  good  deal,  —  and  ourselves.  But 
there  was  talk  enough  besides,  and  things  went  on  evidentlv  according: 
to  a  very  settled  system  until  ten  o'clock,  when  they  all  went  together, 
....  having  passed  an  evening  very  much  to  their  satisfaction,  I 
think,  though  one  in  which  not  the  slightest  refreshment  was  offered 
to  them 

May  21.  —  Mad.  Lenzoni  had  a  good  deal  of  fever  in  the  night, 
and  being  too  unwell  to  get  up  this  morning,  we  took  our  breakfast 
by  ourselves,  and  then  went  to  her  chamber  and  made  our  adieus  to 
the  kind  old  lady  in  her  bed,  which  was  covered  with  the  letters  the 
post  had  just  brought  her 

Few  persons  visited  the  old  Etruscan  and  mediaeval  towns  in 
the  western  part  of  Tuscany  forty  years  ago ;  but  Mr.  Ticknor 
stopped  to  enjoy  the  remarkable  and  interesting  antiquities  of 
San  Gimignano  and  Yolterra,  and  did  not  reach  Pisa  until  the 
23d  of  May. 

Pisa,  May  24.  —  Carmign.ani,  the  principal  jurist  in  this  part  of 
Italy,  —  to  whom  I  had  a  letter,  —  came  to  see  me  this  morning. 
He  is  about  sixty  years  old,  plain  in  his  person,  simple  in  his  man- 
ners, and  very  frank  in  his  conversation,  at  least  on  political  sub- 
jects. He  was  much  acquainted  with  Mazzei,  who  left  him  his  lit- 
erary executor  ;  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have  valued  him  very  highly, 
except  as  an  extremely  amusing  person  who  had  seen  much  of  the 
world,  and  passed  through  a  great  many  remarkable  adventures  from 
the  time  he  fled  from  the  Inquisition  in  Pisa,  about  1770,  to  the  time 
when  he  quietly  returned  there  in  1800.     He  died,  I  think,  about 


M.  45.]  PISA.  93 

1816.  Ciirmignani  readily  promised  to  send  me  his  memoirs  and  pa- 
pers to  look  over,  and  see  what  I  can  find  in  them 

The  evening  was  made  pleasant  to  us  by  a  visit  from  Rosini,  the 
author  of  the  "  Monaca  di  Monza,"  of  "Luisa  Strozzi,"  etc.,  —  a  round, 
easy,  good-natured,  vain,  and  very  agreeable  person,  about  as  old  as 
Carmignani ;  somewhat  jealous,  as  an  author,  of  the  reputation  of 
Munzoni,  Grossi,  and  the  rest  of  his  successful  contemporaries,  and 
extremely  frank  in  suffering  it  to  be  seen.  He  is  full  of  anecdote, 
and  talked  about  Mad.  de  Stael  and  Schlegel  at  the  time  they  were 
here  in  1815-  16,  of  Manzoni,  and  of  himself.  He  seems  extremely 
well  pleased  that  the  "  Monaca  di  Monza"  has  gone  through  eigh- 
teen editions,  and  declares  that  he  is  no  imitator  of  ^lanzoni  or  any- 
body else  ;  for  that  in  1808  he  had  made  collections  for  an  historical 
romance  on  the  times  of  Erasmus,  in  which  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  and 
the  coterie  around  him  at  Florence,  were  to  have  been  introduced  ; 
that  he  showed  his  materials  and  his  plan  to  his  friends  at  the  time, 
and  went  so  far  as  to  get  a  head  of  Erasmus  to  be  engraved  for  the 
frontispiece,  but  was  turned  aside  from  his  project  by  the  times  and 
his  friends.  He  talked,  too,  a  good  deal  of  politics,  and  as  freely  as 
Carmignani,  but  with  less  discretion  and  good  sense. 

May  25.  —  Carmignani,  who  cannot  receive  visits  at  his  house,  be- 
cause it  is  undergoing  great  repairs,  came  to  see  me  again  this  morn- 
ing, and  sent  me  Mazzei's  Memoirs  of  himself  and  a  quantity  of  letters 
and  papers  from  Franklin,  Jefferson,  the  King  of  Poland,—  Stanislaus, 
—  whose  Charge  d' Affaires  he  was  at  Paris,  Abbe  Mably,  John  Adams, 
etc.  It  all  looked  very  curious,  some  of  it  quite  piquant ;  but  I  could 
only  read  a  little,  for  it  is  a  large  folio  volume  of  about  four  hundred 
closely  written  pages.  What  I  did  read,  however,  gave  me  the  im- 
pression that  Mazzei  was  a  mere  adventurer.-*^  Carmignani  talked 
very  well  about  him,  as  well  as  about  everything  else.  J 

*  Mr.  G.  T.  Curtis,  in  recalling  facts  about  his  uncle,  illustrating  the  retentive- 
ness  of  his  memory,  says,  "  I  was  sitting  with  Mr.  Ticknor  one  day  in  his  library, 
about  a  year  before  his  death,  when  he  was  rather  feeble  in'health.  That  emi- 
nent lawyer,  Mr.  Sidney  Bartlett,  came  in,  and  happened  to  mention  that  lie 
had  just  had  occasion  to  give  a  professional  opinion  on  the  title  to  the  estate 
of  Monticello,  formerly  Jefferson's,  and  he  repeated  the  names  of  some  of  the 
places  in  the  neighborhood.  Mr.  Ticknor  remarked  that  Philip  IMazzei  named 
those  places.  Mr.  Bartlett  asked,  'Who  was  Philip  INIazzei  ? '  Mr.  Ticknor, 
with  great  animation,  exclaimed,  '  Don't  know  who  Philip  Mazzei  was  ?  '  He 
then  for  the  space  of  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  made  a  rapi<l  sketch  of  ]\Iazzei's 
history,  tracing  him  into  the  society  of  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Madison,  in  Vir- 
ginia.    The  whole  was  told  with  great  spirit  and  vivacity." 


-1 


94  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 


A — 


He  [Carmignani]  entered  into  the  discussion  with  Rosini,  etc.,  about 
the  line  in  Ugolino,  — 

**  Poscia,  piu  che'l  dolor,  pote  11  digiuno," 

but  there,  I  think,  he  took  the  wrong  side  ;  though  with  Niccolini, 
perhaps,  he  would  rather  err  than  go  right  with  Rosini.  Both,  how- 
ever, are  such  good-natured  men  that  their  literary  difference  has  not 
broken  their  personal  good-will. 
f  After  he  was  gone  I  went  to  see  Rosini,  whom  I  found  in  a  literary 
chaos  of  books  and  manuscripts.  He  showed  me  a  long  poem  he  is 
now  writing  on  the  war  of  Russia  in  1812  ;  the  beginning  of  a  history 
of  painting  in  Italy,  to  serve  as  a  pendant  to  Cicognara's  "  History  of 
/  Sculpture "  ;  a  quantity  of  odes,  sonnets,  and  other  melanges,  about 

all  which  he  talked  with  the  most  good-humored  vanity  ;  and  the  first 
part  of  a  romance  on  the  subject  of  Ugolino,  about  which  he  talked 
with  more  reserve,  but  to  which,  I  suspect,  he  feels  that  he  intrusts  a 
good  deal  of  his  reputation.  When  we  had  talked  an  hour  or  more, 
he  went  out  with  me,  ....  and  to  the  cathedral,  where  I  left  him  to 
hear  his  mass.  But  he  soon  rejoined  me  in  the  Campo  Santo,  and  we 
had  an  interesting  walk  round  its  fine  cloisters  and  by  its  extraordinary 
monuments  of  ancient  art,  about  which  he  has  written  so  pleasant  a 

book 

Lucca,  May  27.  —  We  had  to-day,  between  Pisa  and  Lucca,  one  of 
the  most  beautiful,  nay,  I  may  say  delightful,  drives  that  we  have  had 
in  Europe  ;  the  weather  perfectly  fine  and  the  country  sufficiently  bro- 
ken on  our  right  to  be  picturesque,  while  in  the  plain  through  which 
we  passed  the  cultivation  was  so  luxuriant  —  the  trees,  the  w^hole  way, 
hung  with  the  young  and  graceful  vines  in  all  the  freshness  of  their 
spring  vegetation  —  that  it  seemed  as  if  the  entire  land  had  just  been 

arrayed  for  a  fete Lucca  stands  delightfully,  in  the  midst  of  a 

plain  almost  unrivalled  for  fertility,  with  hills  that  surround  it  in  every 
variety  of  form  and  character  ;  .  .  .  .  and  the  rich  and  exact  cultiva- 
tion comes  up  to  the  very  walls  themselves The  people,  though 

the  population  is  the  most  dense  in  Europe,  — being  456  to  the  square 
mile  for  the  whole  territory,  —  looked  comfortable  and  well-off",  so  abun- 
dant are  the  resources  of  its  soil,  where  to-day  we  have  frequently  seen, 
in  the  same  fields,  the  olive,  the  vine,  wheat,  and  sometimes  figs,  and 

mull  terries  for  silk  cultivation,  added At  the  old  Church  of 

the  Dominicans  ....  are  two  pictures  by  Fra  Bartolomeo,  —  one  the 
Virgin  imploring  mercy  for  the  people  of  Lucca  ;  and  the  other,  God 
the  Father,  and  St.  Mary  Magdalene  and  St.  Catherine  beatified  in  his 


M.  45.]  LUCCA  AND  MILAN.  95 


presence.     Few  works  of  art  by  any  artist  are  ecj^ual  to  ihcni.     We 
went  twice  to  see  them,  and  stayed  long  each  time. 

The  cathedral  is  a  grand  old  building,  erected  lOGO-  70.  Its  front 
is  covered  with  a  rich  and  gorgeous  sculpture  of  minute  labor,  .... 
and  over  the  doors  are  bas-reliefs  by  John  of  Pisa,  and  Nicholas. 
Inside,  not  only  its  bold  and  solemn  style  throughout  is  effective,  but 
there  are  interesting  works  of  art, — verj'-  interesting.  A  j\Iadonna 
by  Ghirlandajo  is  excellent;  two  kneeling  angels  in  marble  on  the 
altar  of  the  sacrament,  by  Civitelli,  1470,  —  whose  works  are  hardly 
found  except  here  and  in  this  neighborhood,  —  and  a  St.  Sebastian, 
also  by  him,  in  1484,  are  marvellous  for  the  time  when  they  were 
produced,  and  beautiful  and  full  of  deep  meaning  for  any  age.  An 
altar-piece  by  John  of  Bologna,  with  the  figures  of  the  Saviour  and 
St.  Peter  on  one  side  and  Paul  of  Lucca  on  the  other,*  is  one  of 
the  few  satisfying  representations  of  the  Saviour  I  have  ever  looked 
upon,  or  perhaps  I  should  rather  say  one  of  the  few  that  do  not  offend 
the  feelings  when  you  look  at  it.     It  is  of  1579 

We  went,  too,  to  the  palace  where  the  Duke  of  Lucca  has,  not  a 
large  collection  of  pictures,  but  an  admirable  one,  distributed  through 
a  few  beautifully  furnished  rooms,  where  they  can  be  seen  in  good 
lights  and  with  great  comfort.  Among  them  are  Raffaelle's  Madonna 
of  the  Candelabra,  —  a  fine  work,  but  not  among  his  best  or  purest ; 
Gherardo  della  Notte's  incomparable  Christ  before  Pilate,  etc.,  .... 
really  quite  an  admirable  collection.  It  was  the  last  thing  we  saw  in 
Lucca,  which  we  left  with  regret,  so  beautiful  is  the  situation  of  the 
town  itself,  and  so  many  beautiful  things  does  it  contain. 

Ten  more  days,  passed  in  the  circuit  through  Spezia  and 
Genoa,  brought  them  to  Milan,  where  Mr.  Ticknor  writes  :  — 

Milan,  June  7.  —  When  we  were  fairly  established,  I  went  out  to 
see  if  I  could  find  some  persons  whom  the  cholera  had  kept  out  of 
the  city  when  we  were  here  last  autumn  ;  and  I  was  doubly  pleased, 
not  only  to  find  the  Marquis  and  Marchioness  Litta  in  their  palace, 
but  to  learn  that  Manzoni  —  who  has  recently  been  married  again  — 
is  still  in  town  ;  that  all  the  Trotti  family  are  here  ;  and  that  the 
Marchioness  Arconati  is  on  a  visit  to  them  from  her  exile  in  Belgium. 
I  therefore  went  to  the  Trotti  Palace  this  evening,  where  I  found  the 
old  Marquis,  above  eighty  years  old,  with  the  Marchioness,  almost 
equally  old,  surrounded  by  their  children  and  grandchildren  and 

*  Statues. 


^  96  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S37. 


friends  in  the  happiest  and  simplest  manner.  Mad.  Litta  was  there 
[one  of  the  daughters]  ;  Mad.  Arconati  [another  daughter],  alwaj's 
intellectual  and  agreeable  ;  and  several  of  the  friends  and  relations 
of  Count  Confalonieri ;  and  I  had  a  very  pleasant  visit  of  one  or  two 
hours. 

June  10.  — .  .  .  .  One  morning  Mad.  Arconati,  with  her  brother, 
the  Marquis  Trotti,  and  two  or  three  other  persons,  took  us  out  to  an 
old  and  deserted  villa  of  the  Marquis  Trotti,  and  showed  us  there  a 
very  large  establishment  for  raising  silk- worms,  the  great  staple  of 

this  part  of  Lombardy 

....  Two  evenings  we  spent  at  Manzoni's,  whose  house  is  the 
only  one  in  Milan,  I  am  told,  where  society  is  freely  received.  His 
wife  was  ill,  and  we  did  not  see  her,  but  his  venerable  mother  was 
there,  his  daughters,  and  a  few  of  his  friends,  the  Casatis,  Baron 
Trechi,  and  some  others.  Among  them  was  one  of  Confalonieri'3 
brothers,  whom  I  met  at  Prince  Metternich's  last  summer.  Both 
evenings  were  very  agreeable,  for  it  was  impossible  not  to  feel  that 
the  people  were  kind  and  good. 

Manzoni  talked  well,  and  upon  subjects  where  he  might  have  been 
excused  from  talking  at  all,  because  it  would  have  been  no  discredit 
to  him  to  have  been  ignorant  ;  such  as  the  commercial  difficulties  in 
the  United  States,  which  he  regarded  in  their  most  important  point 
of  view,  their  moral  effect  on  the  people  ;  the  slave  question,  on  which 
he  is  a  thorough  abolitionist,  so  far  as  to  hold  that  it  is  our  duty  at 
once  to  do  something  which  shall  insure  emancipation  at  some  future 
time,  however  remote,  so  that  the  principle  should  be  now  acknowl- 
edged. 

Of  his  timid  sensitiveness  I  have  heard  many  more  striking  facts  : 
such  as,  that  he  does  not  like  to  be  in  any  sort  of  solitude,  not  even 
to  go  alone  to  say  his  prayers  in  church  ;  that  he  makes  no  visits, 
because  he  does  not  know  whom  he  may  meet,  etc.  Yet  with  all 
this  he  has  a  high  and  even  bold  sense  of  duty,  and  not  a  little  moral 
courage,  maintaining  his  liberal  opinions  on  all  occasions  with  frank- 
ness. His  popularity  as  a  writer  is  extraordinary.  Nothing  like  it 
has  been  known  in  Italy  for  a  century  ;  nor  has  any  man  since  Al- 
iieri  produced  so  striking  an  effect  on  the  popular  feeling.  Traces  of 
the  "  Promessi  Sposi "  are  found  everywhere,  from  the  Pitti  Palace  — 
where  the  Grand  Duke  is  having  a  room  painted  in  fresco  with  de- 
signs from  it  —  to  the  chintz  on  the  sofas  and  chairs  in  the  taverns, 
which  are  often  covered  with  its  storv.  Of  the  editions  of  it  there 
seems  to  be  no  end.     Meantime,  he  himself  loses  nothing  either  of  the 


M.  45.]  NORTH  OF  ITALY.  97 


simplicity  or  shyness  of  his  character  ;  and  the  timidity,  which  seems 
to  be  based  in  a  sort  of  princijjle  and  persuasion  with  him,  is  in  no 
deforce  affected  by  his  fame  and  success,  unless,  indeed,  it  be  rather 
increased  by  them. 

Mad.  Arconati,  who  has  been  intimate  with  him  from  childhood, 
says  he  has  drawn  his  own  principles  and  character  in  the  last  speech 
of  Adelchi,  where  he  says,  among  other  things  in  the  same  tone,  that 
he  has  lived  in  a  state  of  the  world  where  it  has  been  necessary  either 
to  do  or  to  suffer  wrong. 

But  such  evenings  as  we  spent  at  Manzoni's  are  spent  by  few  in 
Milan.  The  great  ambition  of  the  Milanese  ladies  is  to  have  a  fine 
equipage  with  which  to  drive  in  the  beautiful  public  promenade,  and 
a  box  at  the  opera  to  go  to  afterwards.  We  tried  them  both.  We 
drove  with  the  Littas  two  evenings,  just  at  simdown  and  twilight,  and 
saw  the  fashion  of  the  city,  perhaps  from  two  to  four  hundred  equi- 
pages, driving  round  rapidly  for  a  little  while  in  the  really  noble 
space  arranged  for  it  on  the  old  ramparts,  ....  and  then  stopping 
for  a  little  time  in  the  middle,  where  the  gentlemen  on  horseback  and 
friends  on  foot  or  in  other  carriages  come  and  speak  to  them.  Many 
of  the  equipages  were  very  rich  and  tasteful,  ....  and  the  whole 
show  was  very  brilliant  and  graceful.  The  last  evening  w^e  were  in 
Milan  we  went  for  an  hour  to  the  Marquis  Trotti's,  and  found  the 
same  circle  of  children  and  friends  gathered  around  the  courtly  old 
gentleman  that  I  saw  there  the  first  evening.  After  staying  there  a 
little  while  we  went  to  the  opera,  for  which  Mad.  Litta  had  sent  us 
the  key  to  her  box 

The  interest  and  enjoyment  of  two  delightful  days  at  Como 
were  much  increased  by  the  unexpected  presence  of  Mr.  AYords- 
worth  and  Mr.  Eobinson  for  a  part  of  the  time.  At  Bergamo, 
"the  birthplace  of  Bernardo  Tasso  and  of  Tiraboschi,  and  the 
spot  wdience  comes  that  peculiar  Bergamesque  dialect  which, 
in  the  person  of  Harlequin  or  Truffaldino,  amuses  all  Italy,"  an- 
other cordial  meeting  with  Mr.  Wordsworth  and  Mr.  Eobinson 
occurred;  but  after  breakfasting  together  the  parties  separated, 
Mr.  Wordsworth  going  to  the  Lago  d'Iseo,  Mr.  Ticknor  to  the 
Lago  di  Garda,  promising  a  reunion  at  Venice.  There  our  party 
arrived  first,  on  the  17th  of  June. 

Venice,  June  17.  —  It  seemed  very  strange  to  us  to  come  into 
a  city  so   silent  and  yet  so  grand  ;   magnificent  in  its  palaces  and 

VOL.  II.  5  Q 


98  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

churches,  but  looking  deserted  ;  with  streets  of  water,  over  which 
men  glide  noiselessly  as  spectres ;  .  .  .  .  and  with  houses  that  seem 

to  have  no  foundation,  as  you  step  in  and  out  of  them We 

rowed  about  in  our  gondola  like  Turks,  ate  ices  and  drank  sherbets 
in  St.  Mark's  Square  with  the  thousand  other  gay  idlers,  ....  and 
went  home  late,  only  to  listen  to  music  from  the  gondoliers  and 
thoughtless  minstrels,  who  seemed  to  fill  the  summer  night  with  their 
harmony.     The  whole  was  purely  Venetian 

June  22.  --....  We  finished  the  evening,  as  usual,  with  a  lounge 
in  St.  Mark's  Square,  where  we  had  the  pleasure  of  being  joined  by 
Wordsworth  and  Robinson,  who  arrived  this  afternoon,  and  talked 
very  agreeably  of  their  adventures.  They  found  nobody  at  Iseo 
who  remembered  anything  about  Lady  Mary  Montagu's  residence  at 
Louvere.* 

June  23.  —  ....  In  the  evening  we  had  the  genuine  gondolier 
music  of  the  country.  We  procured  four  or  five  gondoliers,  who 
went  in  one  gondola,  while  we  went  in  others,  ....  and  embarking 
just  at  dark,  rowed  down  the  Grand  Canal  towards  the  Lagune.  As 
soon  as  we  were  fairly  in  motion  they  began  to  sing.  They  took  at 
first  Tasso,  and  began  in  a  sort  of  recitative,  and  in  their  soft  Venetian 

dialect,  to  chant  the  episode  of  Armida They  were  themselves 

much  excited  by  it,  and  stood  up  and  gesticulated  as  if  they  were  im- 
provisating.  At  first  it  did  not  produce  much  effect,  but  the  recur- 
rence of  the  same  melody  in  the  recitative  soon  got  the  command  of 

our  feelings,  and  it  became  striking Wordsworth,  who  was  with 

us,  enjoyed  it  very  much,  and  we  were  all  put  into  a  sort  of  spirit  of 

reverie  by  it.     The  gondoliers  evidently  enjoyed  it We  stopped 

them  at  the  end  of  an  hour  and  asked  them  for  some  of  their  national 
airs.  With  these,  too,  they  were  quite  ready,  and  sang  a  great  many 
of  them,  intenningling  them  occasionally  with  parts  of  operas,  which 
the  whole  of  them  sang  with  much  spirit.  It  was  a  beautiful  even- 
ing, and  we  rowed  about,  over  towards  the  Lido  ....  till  after  eleven 
o'clock 

Jmu  24.  —  We  passed  almost  a  long  day  in  the  Doge's  Palace,  giv- 
ing it  entirely  to  the  pictures  there,  which  seem  the  more  astonishing 
and  admirable  the  more  we  see  them.    At  two  o'clock  we  saw  the 

*  Lady  Mary  Wortley  IMontagu  went  to  Italy  for  her  health,  and  remained 
there  twenty-two  years,  in  the  closing  period  of  her  life.  During  many  of 
these  years  she  passed  her  summers  in  the  profound  seclusion  of  Louvere  on  y~f 

the  Lago  d'Iseo.  She  returned  to  England  in  1761,  where  she  died  ten  mouths 
afterwards. 


JE.  45. J  TYROL.  99 


doves  fed Wordsworth  was  with  us  in  the  evening,  and  we 

had  an  excellent  dish  of  talk 

Jane  26.  —  We  left  Venice  this  morning  with  less  reluctance  than 
we  otherwise  should  have  done,  if  the  weather  had  not  of  late  been 
80  warm  that  we  begin  to  be  impatient  to  get  into  the  mountains, 
where  we  have  the  project  of  making,  in  company  with  Gray  and 
Cogswell,  a  somewhat  long  and  whimsical,  but  as  we  hope  agreeable 
journey  of  a  few  weeks 

The  "whimsical  journey"  was,  in  fact,  a  voyage  en  zigzag 
through  ditferent  passes  of  the  Alps ;  out  of  Italy  by  the  Bren- 
ner ;  in  again  over  the  Stelvio,  and  down  the  lovely  Valtelline 
to  the  Lake  of  Como  ',  out  once  more  by  the  Spluegen ;  through 
the  Via  Mala  and  over  the  Arlberg  to  Innsbriick,  —  a  course  sug- 
gested by  ]Mr.  Wordsworth  as  the  best  way  of  seeing  and  en- 
joying the  Alj3s.  Mr.  Ticknor  reviews  the  exjDeriences  of  these 
three  weeks  as  folio  w^s  :  — 

INNSBRIJCK,  JwZi/  16.  — .  ...  I  do  not  know  that  w^e  could  have 
done  more  in  the  same  time  to  see  what  is  grand  and  solemn,  or 
graceful  and  gentle,  in  the  valleys  and  mountain-passes  of  the  North 
of  Italy,  the  Tyrol,  and  the  portions  of  Switzerland  we  did  not  visit 
last  year I  feel,  indeed,  now  as  if  I  were  well  enough  acquaint- 
ed with  the  mountain-country  between  Vienna  and  Marseilles  ;  for 
with  our  visits  to  Upper  Austria  and  Switzerland  last  summer,  added 
to  my  former  passages  of  the  St.  Bernard  and  the  Maritime  Alps  on 
horseback,  I  have  made  seven  passages  of  the  Alps,  — namely,  part  of 
the  Brenner,  the  whole  of  the  Stelvio,  the  SpKigen,  the  Arlberg,  the 
Simplon,  the  St.  Bernard,  and  the  Corniche,  —  and  seen  all  the  princi- 
pal lakes,  mountains,  and  valleys  on  each  side  of  them.  Of  all  this, 
the  lakes  of  Upper  Austria  are  the  most  winning  and  satisfying  as 
lakes,  except  the  Lake  of  Como,  which  is  of  the  same  sort ;  the  Tyrol 
is  the  most  picturesque  country,  and  its  people,  their  costumes  and 
houses,  the  most  curious  and  striking  ;  the  Ortler  Spitz,  the  Jung- 
frau,  and  the  Mont  Blanc  are  the  grandest  of  the  mountains  ;  the 
Valtelline  and  the  valley  of  the  Inn  the  loveliest  of  valleys  and  at 
the  same  time  the  grandest ;  the  Mandatsch  Glacier  the  most  solemn 
of  the  glaciers,  and  next  after  this,  the  Glacier  of  Grindelwald  and 
the  Mer  de  Glace 

After  a  week  at  Munich  —  where  they  again  met  Mr.  "Words- 


100  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1837. 

worth  and  Mr.  Eobinson  —  they  parted  not  only  from  these 
English  friends,  but  from  their  Boston  fellow-travellers,  Gray, 
Cogswell,  and  Ward,  and  went  on  to  Heidelberg,  where  they 
remained  nearly  four  weeks,  "as  a  pause  and  rest  after  just  three 
months  of  uninterrupted  travelHng  and  sight-seeing."  Of  his 
acquaintance  and  interests  there,  Mr.  Ticknor  writes  thus  :  — 

Creuzer,  the  classical  scholar,  whom  I  knew  here  twenty  years  ago, 
seemed  to  me  little  changed.  Schlosser,  the  historian,  is  in  manner 
just  what  his  books  might  lead  one  to  suppose,  —  decided,  and  a  little 
hruyant,  strong  and  genial,  if  not  good-natured.  He  lives  quite  by 
himself,  and  is  probably  the  most  quarrelsome  of  the  very  quarrel- 
some professors  here  ;  but  to  me,  who  entered  into  none  of  their 
manifold  feuds,  he  was  pleasant. 

Ullmann,  the  principal  theological  professor,  is  a  quiet  little  man, 
with  a  good  deal  of  knowledge  in  elegant  literature,  who  was  very 
much  disposed  to  be  useful  to  me,  and  at  whose  house  I  met  agreea- 
ble people,  more  luxuriously  entertained  than  is  common  in  profes- 
sors' houses  in  Germany. 

But  Mittermaier,  a  man  just  fifty  years  old,  is  more  a  man  of  the 
world,  notwithstanding  his  great  learning,  than  any  of  them.  He  is 
President  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  in  Baden,  and  therefore  a  man 
of  a  good  deal  of  political  consequence  in  this  part  of  Germany  ;  and 
his  frank  and  popular  manners  form  rather  a  striking  contrast  to 
those  of  his  caste  generally.  Besides  this,  however,  he  is  a  laborious 
and  successful  professor,  and  his  works  on  the  criminal  law  have 
given  him  reputation  throughout  Europe.  His  house  is  probably  the 
most  agT?eeable,  for  personal  intercourse,  in  Heidelberg,  since  there  is 
a  greater  variety  of  persons  found  there  than  is  found  elsewhere 

In  all  these  families  intercourse  was  simple,  according  to  the  Ger- 
man notions  of  simplicity ;  but  in  all  of  them  —  except  Ullmann's  — 
the  ladies  of  the  family  seemed  to  have  a  good  deal  of  the  household 
work  to  perform.  At  Mittermaier's,  in  particular,  it  was  curious  to 
see  the  daughters  bring  in  the  evening  lights,  and  set  and  serve  two 
rather  large  supper-tables,  assisted  by  a  single  waiting-girl. 

We  knew,  too,  the  old  Baron  Malchus  and  his  daughter.  The  old 
gentleman  was  Minister  of  Finance  to  Jerome  Bonaparte  when  he 
was  King  of  Westphalia,  and  afterwards  to  the  King  of  Wurtem- 
berg  ;  and  he  used  to  make  us  rather  long  visits,  and  talk,  much  at 
large,  of  the  days  of  his  power  and  dignity.  I  have  seldom  found  a 
person  who  had  such  an  immense  mass  of  statistical  details  in  his 


JE.  46'.]  HEIDELBERG.  101 

head,  and  as  he  has  kept  up  a  good  deal  of  intimacy  and  influence, 
with  not  only  the  Bonapartes,  but  the  Wurteml)ergers,  since  his  ab- 
dication of  public  affairs,  he  has  a  great  deal  of  pleasant  and  useful 
matter-of-fact  conversation.  Some  of  his  accounts  of  the  Bonapartes, 
of  their  present  state  and  condition,  ....  showed  how  completely 
this  great  family  has  come  to  point  a  moral  and  adorn  a  tale  ;  how 
completely  it  has  sunk  beneath  the  fears  of  the  potentates  whom 
it  formerly  displaced  from  their  thrones,  and  treated  as  puppets  and 
slaves. 

Our  most  agreeable  acquaintance,  however,  was  the  family  of  the 
Marquis  Arconati,  who  has  taken  a  house  at  Heidelberg  for  the  sum- 
mer, to  be  near  his  only  child,  who  is  at  the  University  here.  They 
came  to  see  us,  with  Berchet,  the  morning  after  our  arrival,  and  dur- 
ing our  whole  visit  treated  us  as  old  friends.  It  was  a  great  pleasure 
to  us,  for  Mad.  Arconati  has  few  equals,  among  her  sex,  for  mtelli- 
gence  and  a  perfectly  uniform  and  simple  elegance  of  manners.  We 
dined  with  them  twice,  and  were  much  with  them  besides,  and  count 
upon  the  pleasure  of  meeting  them  again  in  Paris.  At  their  house 
we  met  Quinet,  who,  I  hear,  —  for  the  first  time,  —  is  to  be  num- 
bered among  the  living  French  poets  of  some  note ;  a  man  about  five- 
and-thirty,  with  a  good  deal  of  self-sufficiency  ;  au  reste,  with  some- 
thing epigrammatic  and  smart  in  his  conversation 

On  the  way  to  Paris  in  the  autumn,  —  having  left  Heidel- 
berg on  the  24th  of  August,  —  the  party  stopped  at  Frankfort 
and  Wiesbaden.     At  Bonn,  — 

I  had  an  agreeable  meeting  w4th  my  old  friend  "Welcker,  kind  and 
learned  as  ever,  liberal  in  his  politics,  so  as  to  be  obnoxious  to  the 
Prussian  government,  but  so  true  and  honest  in  his  character  that  no 
gOA'ernment  ought  to  fear  or  dislike  him.  A  part  of  the  evening  I 
spent  with  August  von  Schlegel,  where  I  met  Tourgueneff,  a  learned 
Eussian,  Secretary  of  the  St.  Petersburg  Academy,  and  a  great  ad- 
mirer of  Dr.  Channing.  It  was  very  agreeable,  but  Schlegel  in  his  j 
old  age  is  more  of  a  fat  than  ever.  He  can  talk  with  comfort  of 
nothing  but  himself. 


-^ 


102  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOPw  [1837. 


CHAPTEE    YI. 

Paris.  —  Von  Raumer.  —  Fauriel.  —  Duke  and  Duchess  de  Broglie.  — 
Guizot.  —  Miss  Clarke.  —  Coquerel.  —  Jouy.  —  Confalonieri.  —  Count 
Mole.  —  Augustin  Thierry.  —  Lamartine.  —  Count  Circourt.  —  Mig- 
net.  —  Cesare  Balho.  —  Mad.  de  Pastoret.  —  Louis  Philippe  and  his 
Family. 

JOURNAL. 

Paris,  September  18."^  —  I  was  at  Bossange's  book-shop  and  two 
or  three  other  similar  establishments  to-day.  They  are  less  ample 
and  less  well  supplied  with  classical  books  of  all  kinds  than  they 
used  to  be.  The  living  literature,  too,  does  not  much  figure  in  them, 
and  from  what  I  could  judge  and  learn,  especially  in  a  long  and 
somewhat  curious  conversation  with  the  elder  Bossange,  I  supjDose  the 
booksellers  now  are  driven  for  a  good  deal  of  their  profits  to  reprint- 
ing popular  authors  with  extravagant  ornaments,  like  "  Gil  Bias," 
"  La  Fontaine,"  and  "  Paul  and  Virginia,"  which  have  recently  been 
published  "with  engravings  on  every  page 

September  20.  —  I  had  a  visit  from  Von  Raumer  this  morning.  He 
is  in  Paris  to  consult  and  make  extracts  from  the  Archives  of  the 
Foreign  Aff"airs,  and  is  now  near  the  end  of  a  two-months'  labor  for 
his  great  historical  work,  like  that  which  he  gave  to  it,  last  year  and 
the  year  before,  in  London.  He  says  he  has  found  an  immense  mass 
of  materials,  and  that  he  is  permitted  to  search  where  he  likes,  and 
copy,  with  only  the  formality  of  an  examination,  wliich  is  made  by 
Mignet,  the  historian. 

It  was  not  my  intention  to  make  acquaintances  or  visits  at  Paris 
till  the  winter  shall  come  on,  but  to-day  I  was  driven  to  make  one 
that  I  found  very  agreeable  ;  I  mean  that  of  M.  Fauriel.  I  wanted 
his  work  on  the  Romances  of  the  Provencal,  and  desired  Bossange 
to  procure  it  for  me  some  days  ago.  Not  finding  it,  or  any  trace  of 
it,  he  applied  to  Fauriel  for  some  indication  in  relation  to  it.  Fauriel 
told  him,  what  was  new  both  to  Bossange  and  myself,  that  the 
Essay  on  Romances   had  been  printed  only  in  a  periodical  ;   and 

*  He  had  reached  Paris  September  11. 


M  46.]  PARIS.  103 

being  surprised  that  an  American  should  inquire  for  it,  Fauriel  sent 
me  hxst  evening  a  copy  of  it,  witli  a  very  civil  note.  Of  course  I 
called  on  him  to-day  and  delivered  him  a  letter  of  introduction  which 
Schlegel  had  given  me  at  Boim.  I  found  him  a  man  above  sixty 
years  old,  I  should  think,  living  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain,  in  a 
quiet  and  modest  manner,  and  surrounded  with  a  library  of  extremely 
curious  books,  in  the  early  literature  of  France,  Germany,  Spain,  and 
Provence.  His  conversation  was  more  accurate  and  careful  than  is 
commonly  found  in  his  countrymen,  but  still  lively  ;  and  his  knowl- 
edge in  early  Spanish  literature,  on  which  we  chiefly  talked,  is  such 
as  I  have  not  found  before  in  Europe.  It  exceeded  that  of  Wolf  at 
Vienna,  as  much  as  his  years  do,  and  gave  me  great  pleasure. 

October  1.  —  I  went  this  morning  to  see  Camillo  Ugoni,  the  author 
of  the  "  History  of  Italian  Literature  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  in 
order  to  make  some  inquiries  of  him  about  Count  Confalonieri,  who 
has  lately  been  in  Paris,  and  been  sent  away  by  the  Police.*  .... 
Ugoni  I  found  a  pleasant  Italian,  about  sixty  years  old,  with  the  ap- 
paratus of  a  man  of  letters  about  him  ;  but  I  talked  with  him  only 
concerning  Confalonieri,  whose  intimate  friend  he  is,  and,  I  believe, 
also  a  fellow-sufferer  in  exile  from  political  causes. 

On  my  return  home  I  found  all  Paris  in  motion  in  the  upper  part 
of  the  city,  chiefly  with  a  fete  at  the  Gardens  of  Tivoli,  but  partly, 
also,  with  the  St.  Germain  Railroad.  It  looked  very  little  like  Sun- 
day. Indeed,  so  few  shops  are  shut,  and  all  works  —  even  those  for 
the  government  —  are  so  diligently  carried  on,  that  I  cannot  distin- 
guish Sunday  from  other  days. 

We  attended  service  at  the  Oratoire,  where  Monod,  son  of  the  person 
who  was  a  preacher  there  twenty  years  ago,  officiated.  The  sermon 
was  thoroughly  Calvinistic.    He  seemed  serious  and  earnest 

October  5.  —  The  Duke  and  Duchess  de  Broglie  beinc:  announced 
in  the  papers  as  having  come  to  to\vn,  I  went  to  see  them  this  morn- 
ing, and  I  am  glad  I  did  ;  they  received  me  as  an  old  friend,  —  as 
if  it  were  but  a  short  time  since  I  was  last  in  their  saloon.  But  they 
are,  of  course,  a  good  deal  altered.  The  Duke,  who  is  above  fifty, 
shows  that  he  has  had  cares  upon  him,  and  that  he  has  not  been 
Prime  Minister  with  impunity  ;  but  still  he  has  preserved  his  natu- 
ral and  original  manner,  a  singular  mixture  of  pride,  warm-hearted- 
ness, and  modesty,  which  gives  him  a  slight  air  of  embarrassment, 
and  makes  him  blush  a  little  whenever  he  expresses  a  strong  or  de- 
cided opinion.     Mad.  de  Broglie  is  just  forty  years  old,  but  does  not 

*  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  161,  256. 


104  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1S37. 

look  so  much  ;  is  still  pretty  ;  and  has  that  charm  she  always  had, 
of  perfectly  simple  and  even  naive  manners,  added  to  great  frank- 
ness and  talent.  Her  daughter,  the  Viscountess  d'Haussonville,  was 
there,  and  is  beautiful ;  .  .  .  .  and  a  M.  Doudan,  who  is  a  sort  of 
secretary  to  the  Duke,  and  who  has  the  reputation  of  beaucoup  de 
moyens.  We  talked  chiefly  about  old  times,  and  the  changes  that 
years  have  brought,  —  the  death  of  their  beautiful  daughter  Pauline, 
and  of  Miss  Randall  ;  the  death  of  Auguste  de  Stael,  etc.,  —  till  Ville- 
main  came  in,  who  has  grown  quite  stout,  with  his  added  reputation, 
and  then  I  came  away,  promising  to  dine  with  them  to-morrow,  and 
meet  Guizot,  who  is  expected  in  town  on  business  to-night.  I  asked 
the  Duke  about  Confalonieri's  case  ;  and  he  said  he  was  as  much  in 
the  dark  about  it  as  everybody  else,  and  extremely  sorry  not  to  find 
him  in  Paris 

October  6.  —  I  dined  at  the  de  Broglies',  and  went  an  hour  before 
dinner,  because  Mad.  de  Broglie  said  she  wanted  me  to  come  so 
early  that  we  might  have  some  quiet  talk  before  company  should 
come  in.  She  was  very  interesting  ;  told  me  much  of  her  life  and 
of  her  family  during  the  last  twenty  years,  and  talked  largely  of  her 
religious  opinions,  which  are  Calvinistic,  knowing  mine  to  be  Uni- 
tarian. Of  her  children,  and  of  her  husband  and  his  public  career, 
she  spoke  with  all  her  natural  frankness  ;  and  about  America  and 
our  institutions  she  was  curious,  but  is  evidently  less  democratically 
inclined  than  when  I  knew  her  before.  Her  conversation  was  al- 
ways earnest,  sometimes  brilliant,  and  I  was  sorry  when  the  approach 
of  dinner  interrupted  it.  ~  Her  pretty,  or  rather  beautiful  daughter 
came  first,  with  her  husband  ;  then  M.  Doudan  and  then  Alphonse 
de  Rocca,  the  youngest  son  of  Mad.  de  Stael,  now  about  twenty- 
five,  extremely  ugly  in  the  lower  part  of  his  face,  like  his  mother,  — 
very  good-natured,  it  is  said,  but  with  a  moderate  capacity. 

The  Duke  de  Broglie  came  last,  with  Guizot,  who,  having  had  his 
hints  beforehand,  pretended  to  remember  a  great  deal  more  about  me 
than  my  vanity  could  render  credible.*  He  talked  at  first,  with  much 
French  esprit,  upon  a  recent  article  of  Montalembert  on  the  Revival 
of  the  Arts,  upon  an  Edinburgh  review  on  Bacon  attributed  to  Ma- 
caulay,  and  such  matters. 

I  thought,  in  all  this,  there  was  something  got  up  for  effect,  a  little 
more  of  the  fashionable  air  of  the  salon  than  became  his  character 
and  position.  But  all  Frenchmen  —  or  almost  all  —  desire  this  repu- 
tation for  esprit,  and  are  not  insensible  to  the  succes  de  salon;  and 

*  See  Vol.  I.  p.  256. 


M.  46.]  GUIZOT.  105 

this  was  the  first  time  M.  Guizot  had  seen  the  de  Broglie  family  for 
several  months.  At  table  he  talked  more  like  a  statesman,  (jn  the 
French  elections  now  approaching,  and  on  American  politics.  He 
treated  ]\tr.  Van  Buren,  compared  with  the  other  Presidents  of  the 
United  States,  as  a  person  not  known  in  Europe.  But  on  American 
affairs  the  Duke  de  Broglie  seemed  better  informed,  and  talked  better 
than  he  did 

October  8.  —  Gans  of  Berlin  came  in  early  this  morning  to  see  me, 
full  of  activity  and  lively  conversation  as  ever.     He  has  been  travel- 
ling in  the  South  of  France,  to  restore  himself  after  a  considerable  ill- 
ness, and  seems  very  round  and  hearty,  as  if  the  experiment  had  qui 
succeeded 

October  9.  —  I  visited  Guizot  this  morning.  He  is  poor,  and  lives 
very  modestly  in  a  small  apartment,  where  it  would  be  quite  impos- 
sible for  him  to  receive  fashionable  company  ;  but  I  believe  that  he 
has  never  sought  to  make  a  fortune,  and  that,  being  without  debts, 
he  is  contented.  He  was  verj'"  curious  this  morning  in  his  inquiries 
about  the  United  States,  and  showed  that  he  has  ceased  to  believe  in 
the  stability  of  our  popular  institutions.  It  was  not  so  formerly.  He 
professes  to  be  very  anxious  on  the  subject ;  to  consider  it  a  great 
calamity  to  the  world  if  the  experiment  of  liberty  in  the  United 
States  should  fail ;  is  much  concerned  about  our  mobs,  the  ques- 
tion of  slavery,  etc.  But  if  he  talked  the  other  day,  at  the  Duke  de 
Broglie's,  like  an  Jiomme  cVesprit  and  like  a  statesman,  he  talked  this 
morning  like  a  politician 

In  the  evening  we  went  to  Mad.  de  Broglie's.  Though  she  does 
not  receive  regularly,  a  good  many  persons  came  in,  most  of  them  men 
of  letters,  or  men  marked  by  intellectual  endowments.  I  was  partic- 
ularly glad  to  see  Ste.  Beuve,  a  modest  little  gentleman  of  about  fifty- 
five  ;  for  if  I  had  not  seen  him  now,  I  should  have  missed  him  alto- 
gether, as  he  is  just  going  for  the  winter  to  Lausanne.  No  man  alive 
has  so  good  a  knowledge  of  French  literature  in  the  fifteenth  and  six- 
teenth centuries  as  he  has  ;  and  I  obtained  some  good  indications  from 
him  this  evening,  which  will  make  me  regret  his  absence  this  winter 
the  more. 

October  16.  —  Mad.  de  BroGflie  made  us  a  long  visit  this  morn- 
ing,  and  talked  politics  and  religion  in  abundance,  which  it  was 
agreeable  to  listen  to,  because  she  is  so  frank  and  sincere,  but  in 
which  it  is  not  possible  for  me  to  agree  with  her,  because  she  is  so 
Calvinistic,  and  looks  with  so  much  less  favor  than  she  used  to  on 
free  institutions 


106  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S37. 

October  25.  —  ....  In  the  evening  we  went  to  see  a  Miss  Clarke, 
an  English  lady,  living  with  her  aged  mother  over  in  the  old  Abbaye 
aux  Bois,  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain.^  She  brought  us  letters 
lately  from  Mrs.  Fletcher.  She  has  lived  in  France  a  large  part  of 
her  life,  and  keeps  a  little  bureau  d'esprit  all  of  her  own,  a  la  Fran- 
gaise.  Au  reste,  she  is,  I  believe,  an  excellent  person,  and  is  a  friend 
of  Mad.  Arconati,  as  well  as  of  other  good  people. 

"We  found  there  Fauriel,  who  is,  I  believe,  to  be  seen  in  her  salon 
every  night,  and  one  other  Frenchman,  I  think  Merimee.  There  was 
much  talk  both  in  English  and  French,  which  Miss  Clarke  seems  to 
speak  equally  well.  Fauriel  was  witty  and  c}Tiical,  as  usual ;  and 
the  lady  very  agreeable. 

The  latter  part  of  the  evening  I  spent  at  Mad.  de  Broglie's,  where  I 
met  Pageot ;  Rossi,t  formerly  a  great  politician  in  Geneva,  and  now, 
it  is  said,  preparing  himself  for  a  peerage  in  France  ;  the  Duke  De- 
cazes,  so  long  the  Minister,  and  the  favorite  of  Louis  XVIII. ;  Vieil- 
Castel,  one  of  the  principal  employes  in  the  Department  of  Foreign 
Affairs  ;  Janvier,  the  well-known  debater  in  the  House  of  Deputies, 
on  the  Doctrinaire  side,  etc.,  etc.     It  was  very  agreeable. 

October  26.  —  We  drove  out,  in  beautiful  weather,  this  afternoon,  to 
Vincennes,  and  saw  the  outside  of  the  fine  old  castle  ;  but  as  it  is  a 
military  depot,  we  were  not  permitted  to  see  the  inside.  The  strong- 
est recollection  that  now  dwells  on  it,  of  course,  is  that  connected  with 
the  death  of  the  Duke  d'Engjhien. 

On  our  way  back  we  went  to  the  suburb,  or  village,  of  Picpus  ;  and 
there,  in  a  cemetery  behind  the  convent  of  the  Sacre  Coeur  de  Jesus, 
saw  the  grave  of  Lafayette.  This  convent  consisted  of  distinguished 
women,  who  devoted  themselves  to  the  business  of  education  ;  and  in 
its  cemetery  a  few  of  the  higher  aristocracy  had  their  graves.  The 
Revolution  broke  it  up,  and  made  it  the  resort  of  a  Jacobin  club.  In 
1804  it  was  restored,  and  the  tombstones  that  had  been  overthroAvn 
were  replaced.  I  should  think  about  fifty  families  of  the  higher  and 
older  aristocracy  have  their  places  of  rest  here,  but  everything  looks 
fresh  and  recent. 

Mad.  de  Lafayette  was  buried  near  some  of  the  Noailles,  and  her 
husband  desired  to  be  placed  near  her.  There  is  nothing  remarkable 
about  the  two  stones,  except  their  simplicity.  They  are  exactly  alike, 
—  no  titles  are  given  to  Mad.  de  Lafayette,  and  to  her  husband  only 
Major-General  and  Deputy ;   and  on  each  gravestone  is  recorded  the 

*  Since  Madame  Mohl, 

t  Pellegrino  Rossi,  assassinated  in  Rome,  November  15,  1848. 


M.  46.]  DUKE  AND  DUCHESS  DE   BROGLIE.  107 

date  of  their  respecti\'e  births,  of  their  marriage,  and  of  their  deaths, 
and  the  two  stones  are  united  by  a  cross. 

October  27.  —  Ugoni  —  who  has  been  frequently  to  see  us  of  late, 
chiefly  to  talk  about  Confalonieri,  whose  case  excites  everywhere 
great  remark  —  carried  me  this  evening  to  the  weekly  soiree  of  Mad. 
Mojon."^  She  is  an  Italian,  her  husband  a  Spaniard,  long  a  professor 
of  medicine  and  physician  at  Genoa,  and  Ijoth  are  great  friends  of 
Confalonieri,  Sismondi,  and  other  persons  of  mark.  They  live  here 
to  enjoy  their  fortune  and  educate  their  children.  I  found  several 
agreeable  people  there,  and  passed  a  pleasant  evening 

October  30. — At  the  Duke  de  Broglie's,  to-night,  I  met  Count 
Mole,  now  the  French  Premier,  and  holding  the  place  of  President 
of  the  Council,  which  the  Duke  formerly  held.  It  was  curious  and 
amusing  to  see  the  two  ministers  together,  who,  without  being  posi- 
tively enemies,  cannot  certainly  be  very  good  friends.  Their  talk 
was  chiefly  about  the  elections,  which  are  to  happen  next  week,  and 
which  they  seem  to  think  might  be  less  favorable  to  the  Ministry 
than  had  been  hoped.  M.  Mole  is  an  intellectual-looking  man  of 
about  sixty,  and  talks  well.  After  he  was  gone,  I  had  some  curious 
conversation  with  the  Duke  de  Broglie  about  the  King  and  about 
Confalonieri's  case. 

October  31.  —  I  went  this  morning  —  at  her  request  —  to  Mad.  de 
Broglie's  at  their  breakfast-hour,  and  sat  out  a  part  of  their  family 
breakfast,  where  I  talked  politics  with  M.  de  Broglie,  who  has  less 
confidence  in  free  institutions  than  he  used  to  have.  Afterwards  I 
went  with  Mad.  de  Broglie  into  her  boudoir,  where  she  showed  me  a 
picture  by  SchefFer,  representing  her  daughter  Pauline,  who  died  at 

fourteen It  is  a  small  picture,  arranged  like  the  picture  of  an 

Oratoire,  and  I  could  not  help  being  struck  by  the  circumstance  that 
her  Calvinism  approaches  here,  as  in  other  instances,  to  the  faith  or 
the  feelings  of  the  Romish  Church.  This  is  the  more  natural,  to  be 
sure,  as  her  husband,  to  whom  she  is  devotedly  attached,  is  a  Catho- 
lic ;  but  still  I  think  it  also  lays  in  her  own  character  and  feelings. 
At  any  rate,  she  is  a  very  interesting  person  ;  full  of  simplicity,  sin- 
cerity, and  talent.  I  talked  with  her  a  good  deal  this  morning  about 
christianizing  the  poor  and  those  who  neglect  all  religion,  and  she 
showed  much  practical  familiarity  with  the  subject,  as  well  as  a  strong 
interest  in  it. 

*  Mad.  Bianca  Milesi-Mojon  translated  Mrs.  Barhaiild's  Hjinns  and  some  of 
Miss  Edgeworth's  Tales  into  Italian  ;  and  a  sketch  of  her  life  was  published  by 
Emile  Soiivestre,  in  1854. 


108  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 


November  6.  —  I  spent  an  hour  this  evening  very  agreeably  at  the 
Countess  de  Ste.  Aukire's,"^  where  I  found  only  her  daughters  and  two 
or  three  gentlemen,  this  not  being  one  of  her  evenings  of  reception, 
though  I  supposed  it  was  when  I  went.  Her  character,  her  talents, 
and  her  graceful  and  winning  manners  plainly  fit  her  for  her  place 
as  the  wife  of  a  foreign  ambassador  ;  but,  like  all  the  French,  she 
rejoices  in  the  opportunity  to  come  back  to  Paris.  I  talked  with  her 
about  the  elections  and  French  politics,  which  are  at  this  moment  the 
absorbing  subject.  She  is  of  course  ministerial,  but  it  was  striking 
to  see  how  much  she  fears  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  now  grown,  by 
the  changes  of  the  times,  of  great  and  preponderating  consequence. 
No  such  opinions  and  feelings  could  have  been  expressed  when  I  was 
here  before  ;  and  I  find  them  on  all  sides,  though  expressed  with  more 
reserve  by  such  men  as  the  Duke  de  Broglie  and  Count  Mole  than  by 
a  lady  like  Mad.  de  Ste.  Aulaire. 

On  the  case  of  Confalonieri  she  expressed  herself  with  equal  frank- 
ness ;  as  did  also  Rossi,  whom  I  visited  this  afternoon.  The  whole 
of  that  affair,  indeed,  is  very  discreditable  to  the  French  government, 
and  especially  to  the  King  ;  but  persons  standing  in  the  same  rela- 
tions of  party  and  personal  friendship  to  the  President  of  the  United 
States  and  his  Cabinet,  as  the  Duke  de  Broglie,  Rossi,  and  Mad.  de 
Ste.  Aulaire  do  to  the  French  throne  and  administration,  would  not 
have  spoken  out  their  opinions  as  freely  and  truly  as  these  persons 
have  spoken  them  out  to  me.  This  is  a  difference  between  the  coun- 
tries discreditable  to  us,  and  which  I  feel  as  a  moral  stain  upon  us. 

November  7.  —  I  spent  some  time  this  morning  in  the  King's  pri- 
vate library,  originally  Bonaparte's,  and  which  I  knew  under  Barbier 
as  the  library  of  Louis  XVIII.  It  is  an  uncommonly  comfortable 
and  well-arranged  establishment  ;  better  than  any  of  the  sort  I  know 
of,  except  the  Grand  Duke's  at  Florence,  and  larger  than  that.  Jouy, 
the  author  of  the  "Hermite  de  la  Chaussee  d'Antin,"  is  the  head 
of  it,  a  hale,  hearty,  white-headed  old  gentleman  of  about  sixty-five. 
Like  everybody  else,  now,  he  talked  about  j^olitics  and  the  elections, 
and  rejoiced  at  the  success  of  the  Ministry.  He  seemed  to  be 
throughout  very  content,  and  has  occasion  to  be  so.  He  made  a 
good  fortune  by  his  periodicals,  and  admits  very  frankly  that  he 
wrote  for  that  purpose  ;  wrote  as  long  as  the  booksellers  would  pay 
him  well,  and  wrote  a  great  deal  too  much.  And  he  has  now  a  good, 
easy  place  under  government,  where  he  occupies  himself  with  his  lit- 
erary studies,  and  has  settled  all  his  arrangements  for  an  agreeable  old 


age. 


*  See  Vol.  I.  p.  256. 


^.46.]  COUNT  COXFALONIERI.  109 

November  8.  —  Being  at  Guizot's  this  morning,  he  told  me  some 
curious  paiticuhars  about  the  King.  He  says,  the  King  commence 
heaucowp  de  f antes,  et  en  Jinit  fort  peu;  that  he  feels  his  talent  and 
power  of  action,  and  sometimes  decides  without  consulting  his  minis- 
ters ;  that  when  he  himself  was  Minister  for  the  first  time,  the  King 
twice  so  decided  in  affairs  that  were  of  his  department,  hut  that,  hav- 
ing himself  immediately  caused  it  to  be  understood  that  he  had  no 
responsibility  in  those  cases,  the  King  never  did  it  afterward  ;  that 
the  Kins:  sometimes  asked  him  to  leave  his  hrouillons  of  me'moires. 
etc.,  with  him,  to  be  looked  over,  but  that  he  always  refused,  because 
he  did  not  choose  the  King  should  consult  others  about  his  unfin- 
ished and  unexplained  projects,  or  make  a  separate  work  and  decision 

of  his  own  upon  them,  etc.,  etc The  King,  too,  Guizot  says, 

is  very  anxious  and  sensitive  on  the  subject  of  the  punishment  of 
death,  examines  each  case  of  capital  conviction  himself,  and  makes  a 
written  abstract  of  the  reasons  for  and  against  a  pardon,  in  parallel 
columns,  and  decides  with  care  and  conscientiously  without  the  inter- 
vention of  his  ministers. 

In  the  afternoon  I  saw  Confalonieri.  He  was  in  bed,  broken  down 
in  health,  and  much  broken  in  the  brightness  and  strength  of  his  in- 
tellectual powers,  but  full  of  kindly  affection  and  gratitude.  I  went 
over  the  whole  of  his  strange  case  with  him  ;  his  case,  I  mean,  so  far 
as  the  French  government  is  concerned,  and  told  him,  what  he  did 
not  before  know,  how  completely  it  was  the  King's  personal  affair.  I 
did  not  stay  long  with  him,  for  it  was  not  well  that  he  should  talk 
much.  He  has  been  in  Paris,  this  time,  three  days.  To-morrow  he  is 
to  have  an  operation  performed,  and  when  he  is  sufficiently  recovered 
will  go  to  the  South  of  France.  It  is  a  great  pain  to  see  him  so  dif- 
ferent from  what  he  was  v/hen  I  knew  him  at  Milan  in  1817,  and  at 
Paris  in  1818-19.  The  Austrian  government  seems  to  have  suc- 
ceeded. It  has  crushed  him,  broken  his  spirit,  broken  his  heart ;  and 
his  nature  was  so  noble  and  lofty  that  it  seems  as  if  tyranny  were 
encouraged  and  strengthened,  by  his  present  condition,  to  proceed  as 
far  as  it  has  power.  It  seems  as  if  it  had  now  found  new  and  better 
means  to  work  withal  than  it  had  ever  discovered  before 

November  12.  —  The  case  of  Confalonieri  is  so  remarkable,  and, 
from  accidental  circumstances,  I  have  become  so  fully  and  exactly 
possessed  of  details  that  are  almost  unknown  even  in  Paris,  and  some 
of  which  Confalonieri  himself  learnt  only  from  me,  that  I  have 
thought  I  would  write  it  out  in  full.  It  is  strongly  illustrative  of 
the  way  in  which  things  are  managed,  not  only  in  France,  but  by 


110  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

other  governments  in  Europe  ;  and  1  dare  say  no  proper  account  of 
it  will  ever  be  published,  and  the  whole  truth  will  never  be  known. 
Count  Confalonieri,  belonging  to  one  of  the  first  and  richest  families 
/  in  Lombard}',  was,  by  his  position  in  society,  by  his  talents,  by  the 

nobleness  of  his  character,  and  by  his  personal  relations  throughout 
Europe,  not  only  one  of  the  most  prominent  persons  in  Italy,  but 
altogether  the  first  and  most  important  of  the  victims  of  Austria  in 
1821.  When  in  the  United  States  he  wrote  to  his  old  friend,  the 
Duke  de  Broglie,  then  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  to  Louis  Philippe, 
to  inquire  whether  his  presence  in  France  would  be  unwelcome  to  the 
government.  The  Duke  —  who  told  me  this  fact — said  he  replied 
that  he  ought  not  to  have  permitted  himself  to  ask  such  a  question ; 
that  France  was,  as  it  were,  his  natural  asylum ;  and  that  the  sooner 
he  should  be  here  the  more  happiness  he  would  give  his  friends.  On 
receiving  this  assurance  he  gave  notice  in  New  York,  to  the  Austrian 
Consul,  of  his  intention  to  come  to  France,  that  he  might  not  even 
seem  to  do  anything  covertly,  and  embarked  for  England. 

He  there  gave  a  new  and  somewhat  formal  notice  to  the  French 
Charge  d A  ftaires,  —  the  Ambassador  being  absent,  —  and  desired  him, 
if  he  had  any  doubt  about  his  reception  in  France,  —  where  the  Duke 
de  Broglie  had  been  displaced  by  Count  Mole,  —  to  write  for  instruc- 
tions ;  to  which  the  Charge  replied,  that  there  could  be  no  doubt  in 
the  case,  and  that  he  should  hold  it  to  be  a  pleasure  as  well  as  a  duty 
to  viser  his  passport.  Under  these  circumstances  he  crossed  the  Chan- 
nel, and  arrived  in  Paris  about  September  20,  where  he  established 
himself  in  a  private  hospital  to  undergo  a  surgical  operation,  intend- 
ing to  pass  the  winter  in  the  South  of  France,  as  his  constitution  is 
much  shattered  by  his  confinement  and  sufferings  for  sixteen  years  in 
the  Spielberg, 

When  he  had  been  a  few  days  in  this  Maison  de  Sante  he  was  sud- 
denly sent  for  to  the  police,  and  there,  very  rudely,  as  he  told  me,  or- 
dered to  leave  France,  and  to  go  back  to  England  by  the  very  road  by 
which  he  had  come  from  it,  quitting  Paris  within  twenty-four  hours. 
Confalonieri  replied  that,  to  a  gentleman,  any  command  on  such  a  sub- 
ject was  quite  unnecessary  ;  that  to  make  him  anxious  to  leave  the 
country  it  would  have  been  sufficient  to  have  intimated  to  him  that  his 
presence  in  it  was  unwelcome  ;  and  that  he  should  not  fail  at  once  to 
obey  the  injunctions  of  the  government.  But  the  next  day  the  Prefect 
of  Police  came  to  him  in  the  Maison  de  Sante,  four  miles  from  his  ofiice, 
in  person,  with  mitigated  instructions,  and  followed  up  this  sort  of  visi- 
tation for  three  successive  days,  with  offers  of  kindness,  and  intima- 


^.46.]  CONFALONIERI  SENT  FROM  PARIS.  Ill 


tions  of  an  unaccountable  regret,  \vliich  Confalonieri  received  very 
politely,  but  declined,  unless  it  were  understood  that  the  government 
had  changed  its  opinion  about  his  residence  in  France.  He  accepted, 
however,  the  permission  to  go  to  Belgium  instead  of  England  ;  and  on 
the  29th  of  September  set  off  to  join  his  friends  the  Arconatis,  at  their 
castle  of  Gaesbeck,  near  Brussels. 

Meantime  the  newspapers  had  got  possession  of  the  matter,  and  the 
government  was  attacked  for  its  harshness.  The  TemjJS,  the  Min- 
isterial paper,  replied,  and  defended  the  king  by  three  assertions  :  1. 
That  Confalonieri  had  come  to  Europe  contrary  to  his  promise  given 
to  Austria,  that  he  would  not  return.  2.  That  the  king  in  1823,  being 
then  Duke  of  Orleans,  had  used  his  influence  with  Austria  to  have 
Confalonieri's  sentence  changed  from  death  to  imprisonment,  and  im- 
plied that  it  was  partly  at  least  through  this  influence  that  it  had 
been  so  changed.  3.  That  the  king  had,  two  years  since,  again  used 
his  intervention  with  Austria  and  procured  Confalonieri's  full  libera- 
tion, on  condition  that  he  should  not  be  received  in  France.  Confa- 
lonieri, feeling  his  honor  attacked  by  this  semi-official  statement  made 
with  great  formality,  replied  by  a  few  decisive  words  in  a  note,  to 
which  he  subscribed  his  name  :  1.  That,  as  to  the  promise  to  Austria, 
he  never  made  any  whatever  ;  a  fact  well  known,  but  since  proved  by 
the  publication  of  the  paper  which  contained  what  he  did  sign  on  his 
release  from  prison.  2.  That,  as  to  the  two  interferences  spoken  of 
and  said  to  have  been  made  by  the  Duke  of  Orleans  and  the  King  of 
the  French,  he  had  remained  in  complete  ignorance  of  both  of  them 
up  to  the  moment  of  the  publication  in  the  TemjJS Every- 
body has  known,  since  1823,  that  the  commutation  of  Confalonieri's 
punishment  was  procured,  at  the  last  possible  moment,  by  the  agony 
of  his  wife  at  the  feet  of  the  Empress  ;  and  that  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
as  the  head  of  the  liberal  party  then  existing  in  France,  would  have 
injured  instead  of  helped  her  cause,  if  he  had  been  known  or  even 

suspected  to  favor  it The  assertions,  however,  about  the  two 

interferences  were  made  anew  in  the  official  paper  after  Confalonieri's 
note  appeared  ;  the  matter  seemed  to  grow  more  and  more  serious, 
and  people  began  to  wonder  how  it  was  to  end 

At  last  it  came  out.  It  was  ascertained  that  the  Austrian  Charge 
d'Aff'aires,  Baron  von  Hiigel,  —  Count  d'Appony,  the  Ambassador,  be- 
ing in  Vienna,  —  as  soon  as  he  knew  Confalonieri  was  Iwre,  went  to 
Count  Mole,  the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  declared  that  Con- 
fidonieri  had  broken  his  word,  that  it  was  an  outrage  to  Austria  to 
permit  him  to  be  in  France  ;  and,  in  short,  took  up  the  matter  so  vio- 


112  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  •     [1S37. 

lently  that  Mole  said  afterwards  lie  expected  little  less  than  a  speedy 
demand  to  have  Confalonieri  delivered  up  to  Austria,  or  something 
equally  extravagant.  Mole,  however,  is  a  cool  and  a  cautious  man, 
and  did  not  commit  himself  by  any  decisive  answer.  Whereupon  Von 
Hiigel  drove  out  the  same  evening  to  St.  Cloud,  and  made  similar 
representations  to  the  King  in  person,  who,  less  cautious  than  his  Min- 
ister, declared  at  once  that  Confalonieri  should  be  sent  out  of  the 
country 

Further  and  more  strange  developments  soon  followed.  Von  Hiigel 
turned  out  to  be  deranged  in  mind,  and  his  representations  to  the 
King  and  Mole  were  found  to  be  wholly  unauthorized  by  his  govern- 
ment, were  found  to  be,  in  fact,  the  first  outbreak  of  his  insanity.  His 
recall  was  asked  for  by  France,  and  he  is  just  gone  off  to  England, 
because,  I  suppose,  they  think,  with  the  Clown  in  Hamlet,  that  it  will 
not  be  seen  in  him  there,  where  all  the  men  are  as  mad  as  he.  This 
made  things  bad  enough.  But  Prince  ]\Ietternich  took  care  to  make 
them  worse.  He  felt  his  advantage  instinctively,  and  used  it  with  his 
inevitable  shrewdness.  He  made  no  explanations  or  statements  to 
France,  for  these  might  have  been  answered,  and  so  the  difficulty  cov- 
ered up,  if  not  got  over  by  diplomatic  ingenuity.  But  as  soon  as  Con- 
falonieri was  settled  in  Belgium  he  sent  a  despatch  to  the  Austrian 
Minister  at  Brussels,  written  wholly  in  his  own  hand,  and  directing 
him  to  show  it  to  Confalonieri,  declaring  that  the  Austrian  govern- 
ment had  nothing  to  do  with  the  proceedings  in  France,  and  claimed 
no  right,  and  had  no  wish,  to  prevent  his  residing  there 

Meanwhile  the  King's  enemies  say,  as  V.  did  last  evening,  "Le 
voila  !   il  a  menti  de  nouveau,  et  pour  si  petite  chose  ! "  or  with  the 

spirituel ,  "  Un  fou  Ta  eftraye  avec  un  mourant." ....  In  Brussels, 

the  Belgian  government,  urged  by  Count  Merode,  gave  Confalonieri 
to  imderstand,  at  once,  that  he  should  not  in  any  event  be  molested 
there.  But  this  was  not  necessary  ;  for  it  was  impossible  the  French 
government  should  stand  where  it  now  stood.  It  must  either  go 
forward  or  go  back.  After  some  hesitation,  therefore,  and  an  attempt 
to  persuade  Confalonieri  indirectly  to  ask  for  permission  to  return  to 
France,  —  which  of  course  failed,  —  Count  Mole  was  obliged  to  write 
him  a  letter,  offering  him  the  leave  he  would  not  solicit. 

Even  now,  however,  the  newspapers  were  full  of  misrepresenta- 
tions. It  w^as  said  "  mistakes  had  been  committed  in  consequence  of 
Confalonieri's  unexpected  appearance  at  Paris  "  ;  that  "  in  consequence 
of  representations  from  his  physicians  he  had  received  permission  to 
go  to  Montpellier "  ;  that  "  the  Count  had  written  from  Brussels," 


^.46.]  BARON  PICHON.  113 

etc.,  etc.,  all  of  which  is  false,  and  only  intended  to  let  the  public  come 
gradually  at  the  truth.  However,  Confalonieri  arrived  here  on  the 
5th  instant,  and  on  the  9th  it  was  finally  admitted,  by  the  govern- 
ment journals,  that  there  was  no  longer  any  objection  to  his  being  in 
Paris. 

December  11. — I  dined  to-day  at  Mr.  Hcirris's,*  where  were  Gen- 
eral Cass,  our  Minister,  Prince  Czartoriyski,  formerly  Prime  Mimster 
of  Alexander  of  Russia,  General  Lallemand,  and  a  few  others.  But 
the  person  who  most  interested  me  was  Baron  Pichon.f  I  sat  next 
to  him  at  dinner,  and  talked  with  him  afterwards  till  half  past  ten 
o'clock,  long  after  the  rest  of  the  company  was  gone.  He  was  Secre- 
tary of  Legation  to  Genet  and  Fauchet  in  the  United  States ;  after- 
wards in  the  office  of  Foreign  Affairs  here,  during  the  Directory  and 
under  Talleyrand  ;  then  again  in  the  United  States,  Secretary  and 
Charge  d' Affaires  from  1801  to  1805,  and  I  know  not  what  else,  until 
he  was  Governor  of  Algiers  under  Louis  Philippe,  to  whom  he  is  now 
Conseiller  d'Etat.  Among  other  things  he  told  me  that  Tom  Paine, 
who  lived  in  Monroe's  house  at  Paris,  had  a  great  deal  too  much  in- 
fluence over  Monroe  ;  that  Monroe's  insinuations  and  representations 
of  General  Pinckney's  character,  as  an  aristocrat,  prevented  his  recep- 
tion as  Minister  by  the  Directory,  and  that,  in  general,  Monroe,  with 
whose  negotiations  and  affairs  Pichon  was  specially  charged,  acted  as 
a  party-democrat  against  the  interests  of  General  Washington's  ad- 
ministration, and  against  what  Pichon  considered  the  interests  of  the 
United  States. 

Of  Burr,  he  said  that  he  was  the  most  unprincipled  man  he  had 
almost  ever  known,  and  that  he  hardly  knew  how  he  could  have 
become  so,  to  such  a  degree,  in  the  United  States.  He  said  that  be- 
tween 1801  and  1805,  w^hile  Burr  was  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,  he  made  suggestions  and  proposals  to  Pichon,  for  throwing  the 
United  States  into  confusion,  and  separating  the  States  under  the 
influence  and  with  the  aid  of  France  ;  and  that  when  Burr  was  in 
France  afterwards,  he  renewed  the  same  offers  and  suggestions,  both 
to  Talle}Tand  and  to  Bonaparte. 

Of  Hamilton  he  spoke  with  great  praise  and  admiration  ;  but  said 
he  must  qualify  it  somewhat,  because  Hamilton  once  said  to  him  that 
TallejTand  was  the  greatest  of  modern  statesmen,  because  he  had  so 
well  known  when  it  was  necessary  both  to  suffer  wrong  to  be  done 
and  to  do  it.     Talleyrand,  he  said,  who  had  been  the  entire  cause  of 

*  Earlier  our  Charge  cV Affaires  in  Paris,  for  a  time. 

t  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  132  and  261. 

H 


114  LIFE   OF   GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1837. 

Lis  —  Pichon's  —  fortune,  and  witli  whom,  for  the  greater  part  of  his 
life,  he  had  "been  extremely  intimate,  hates  the  United  States.  He 
has  never  —  Pichon  thinks  —  forgotten  "Washington's  refusal  to  receive 
him  at  his  levee,  because  he  did  not  think  it  suitable,  in  the  delicate 
position  of  affairs  with  France,  to  receive  an  emigre  in  the  presence  of 
the  French  Minister.  At  any  rate,  since  the  18th  Brumaire,  he  had 
always  expressed  himself  openly  against  the  United  States,  and  used 
his  influence  recently  against  grantmg  our  claims  for  the  famous 
twenty-five  millions. 

Burr  once  said  to  Pichon,  "  The  rule  of  my  life  is,  to  make  business 
a  pleasure,  and  pleasure  my  business." 

December  14.  —  .  .  .  .In  the  latter  part  of  the  evening  I  went  to  a 
fashionable  party  at  the  ]\larquis  Brignole's,  the  Sardinian  Ambassa- 
dor. Count  Mole  and  several  other  of  the  ministers  were  there,  most 
of  the  foreign  diplomacy,  and  a  good  deal  of  tlie  fashion  of  Paris. 
But  this  is  the  first  party  that  has  been  given  this  season,  and  the 
whole  force  of  the  beau  monde  is,  therefore,  by  no  means  collected. 
It  was,  like  all  such  parties  in  the  great  capitals  of  the  Continent,  a 
collection  of  extremely  well  dressed  people  in  beautiful  and  brilliantly 
lighted  rooms.  Among  them  I  found  a  few  old  acquaintances,  espe- 
cially the  Duke  de  Villareal,  recently  Prime  Minister  in  Portugal,  and 
son  of  the  Souza  who  published  the  magnificent  "  Camoens."  I  knew 
him  when  he  was  Minister  of  Portugal  at  Madrid,  and  had  much 
pleasant  talk  with  him  about  old  times.  The  Circourts  were  there. 
Count  d'Appony,  Countess  de  Ste.  Aulaire,  and  a  good  many  persons 
whom  I  knew,  so  that  I  had  an  agreeable  visit. 

December  18.  —  I  went,  as  usual  on  Mondays,  to  FauriePs  lecture 
on  Spanish  Literature  ;  which,  as  usual,  was  much  too  minute  on  the 
antiquities  that  precede  its  appearance.  In  fact,  now,  after  an  intro- 
ductory lecture  and  two  others,  he  has  not  completed  his  view  of  the 
state  of  things  in  Spain  at  the  first  dawning  of  tradition,  seven  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ.  At  this  rate,  he  will  not,  by  the  time  we 
leave  Paris  next  spring,  have  reached  the  Arabs.  He  lectures  at  the 
Sorbonne,  whose  ancient  halls  are  now  as  harmless  as  they  were  once 
formidable,  and  has  an  audience  thus  far  of  about  fifty  or  sixty  per- 
sons, not  more  than  half  of  whom  are  young  men.  He  is  very 
learned  and  acute,  but  too  minute  and  elaborate. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  Mad.  Martinetti's,*  who  is  here  for  the 
winter.     She  is  as  winning  as  ever,  and  as  full  of  knowledge  and 

*  Countess  Rossi-Martinetti  of  Bologna.    See  Vol.  I.  p.  166,  and  Vol.  II.  j).  47. 


^.46.]  AUGUSTIN  THIERRY.  115 

accomplishments,  but  her  beauty  is  somewhat  laded.     There  were  a 
few  people  there,  and  it  was  pleasant,  but  I  did  not  stay  long. 

December  19.  —  In  the  evening  I  went  to  Count  Mole's,  at  the  Hotel 
des  Affaires  Etrangeres,  where,  as  on  the  evening  when  I  was  pre- 
sented, I  found  his  large  saloon  full  of  the  foreign  ambassadors,  and 
the  great  notahilites  of  the  country.  As  the  Chamber  of  Deputies 
began  its  session  yesterday,  there  were  many  of  them  present,  not  a 
few  who  came  for  the  first  time  ;  and  the  way  in  which  the  old  huis- 
sier,  seventy  years  old,  who  has  stood  at  the  door  of  all  the  minis- 
ters from  Bonaparte's  time,  announced  these  different  individuals,  was 
often  amusing.  He  evidentl}''  did  it  sometimes  in  a  tone  which,  but 
for  his  gray  hairs,  would  have  been  impertinent,  since  it  distinguished 
the  rank  of  those  who  entered,  if  they  were  Frenchmen.  I  found  a 
good  many  persons  whom  I  knew Among  the  new  acquaint- 
ance I  made,  the  most  agreeable  were  Koenneritz,  the  Saxon  Minister, 
and  Mignet,  the  author  of  the  "  History  of  the  French  Revolution  "  ; 
a  man  of  about  forty,  evidently  full  of  talent  and  striking  qualities. 

December  22.  —  I  went  this  afternoon  to  see  Mignet  and  Eossi,  cer- 
tainly two  of  the  most  distinguished  persons  I  have  yet  become  ac- 
quainted wdth  in  Paris  ;  and  talked  with  them,  of  course,  on  political 
subjects,  or  subjects  connected  with  politics  and  history. 

In  the  evening  I  went  with  Count  Circourt,  and  made  my  first  \dsit 
to  Thierry,  the  author  of  the  admirable  history  of  the  Normans.  It 
is  rare  to  see  so  striking  an  instance  of  the  triumph  of  intellectual 
power  and  moral  energy  over  personal  infirmities. 

He  is  about  forty  years  of  age  ;  but  fifteen  years  ago  he  lost  his 
sight  entirely,  and  for  the  last  eight  years  has  been  paralyzed  in  his 
lower  extremities,  so  as  to  be  incapable  of  moving  himself  at  all. 
But  after  his  blindness  was  upon  him,  and  after  the  paralysis  w^as 
already  begun,  —  but  not  so  far  advanced  as  it  is  now,  —  a  lady  of  in- 
tellectual habits  and  accomplishments,  and  of  an  eligible  position  in 
society,  became  attached  to  him  and  married  him,  from  a  desire  to 
devote  herself  to  his  happiness,  which  she  has  done  faithfully  and 

cheerfully  for  seven  years He,  meanwhile,  has  gone  on  with 

his  difficult  studies  as  if  no  infirmity  had  befallen  him. 

Under  the  auspices  of  the  government  he  is  employed  in  collecting 
manuscript  materials  from  all  parts  of  France  for  a  history  of  the 
tiers  etat,  and  is,  besides,  engaged  in  a  historical  work  on*  the  Mero- 
vingian race.  He  has  published,  too,  his  letters  on  the  Communes^ 
and  many  reviews,  and  other  single  articles  on  the  same  difficult  and 
obscure  subjects  ;    all  written  with  great  felicity   of  manner,  and 


116  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1837. 

showing  laborious  and  careful  research  into  the  original  and  unpub- 
lished sources  of  French  history.  I  found  him  this  evening,  with 
two  or  three  friends,  in  an  uncommonly  pretty  and  well-arranged  par- 
lor, sitting  in  his  arm-chair,  with  a  sort  of  comforter  of  silk  thrown 
about  the  lower  part  of  his  person.  His  infirmities  were  plainly 
upon  him,  but  there  was  nothing  or  very  little  that  was  painful  in 
their  character.  He  talked  with  great  distinctness  of  opinion  and 
phrase  upon  a  wdde  variety  of  subjects  ;  such  as  the  different  races 
of  men  in  the  early  ages  of  the  world,  the  impossibility  of  two  races 
becoming  mixed  on  equal  terms,  the  state  of  Canada  at  this  moment, 
Cooper's  novels,  etc.  He  saj^s  he  is,  though  entirely  liberal  in  his 
politics,  less  inclined  to  republican,  or  democratic,  institutions  than  he 
used  to  be,  because  he  thinks  the  people  are,  from  the  tendencies  of 
their  nature,  less  disposed  to  choose  the  most  elevated  minds  for  the 
most  important  places,  or  to  intrust  their  affairs  generally  to  the 
wisest  and  most  disinterested  hands. 

At  ten  o'clock  I  left  him,  —  for  his  visitors  do  not  stay  late,  on  ac- 
count of  his  health,  —  and  went  to  the  Duchess  de  Broglie's.  I  went 
to  see  her  in  the  forenoon,  a  couple  of  days  ago,  when  she  first  re- 
turned from  Broglie  ;  and  she  then  told  me  that  she  intends  to  receive 
le  monde  every  Wednesday  night,  but  that  her  friends  would  find 
her,  besides,  on  Mondays,  Fridays,  and  Saturdays.  So  I  went  this 
evening,  —  Friday,  —  and  found  about  a  dozen  persons  there  :  Eynard, 
Rossi,  Lebrun,  etc.  It  was  extremely  agreeable,  and  I  stayed  till 
the  tea-table  was  brought  in  at  eleven  o'clock.  So  much  for  French 
hours  !  There  was  an  extremely  animated  talk  for  some  time  about 
Arnauld,  Pascal,  and  the  writers  of  Port-Royal  generally ;  and  if  it 
had  continued,  I  dare  say  I  should  have  stayed  later. 

December  23.  — ....  I  left  a  dinner  at  Colonel  Thome's  some- 
w^hat  early,  to  go  to  Lamartine's,  who,  being  in  rather  feeble  health, 
does  not  like  to  receive  late.  He  is  a  man  of  fortune,  and  lives  as 
such  ;  besides  which,  he  is  eminently  the  fashionable  intellectual  man 
of  his  time  in  Paris. 

He  has  just  been  elected  to  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  from  three 
different  places,  a  distinction  which  has  happened  to  no  other  ;  and  in 
the  Chamber  he  has  a  little  party  of  his  own,  about  fifteen  or  twenty 
in  number,  who  generally  support  the  Ministry,  but  are  understood  to 
vote  independently,  and  to  desire  nothing  from  the  government ;  so 
that,  in  the  present  balanced  state  of  parties,  he  has  a  good  deal  of 
political  power  in  his  hands.  As  a  poet,  he  is,  of  course,  the  first 
and  most  fashionable,  and  he  has  always  round  him  a  considerable 


iE.  46.]  LAMARTINE.  117 


number  of  young  aspirants  for  fome,  to  whom  he  is  said  to  be  more 
kind  than  is  even  discreet  or  useful  for  them, 

I  found  him  in  a  beautiful  hotel  and  a  tasteful  saloon,  in  which 
were  five  or  six  pictures  by  his  wife,  and  among  the  rest  an  excellent 
likeness  of  himself.  About  a  dozen  gentlemen  were  there,  of  whom 
I  knew  only  Tourgueneff  and  Count  Circourt. 

He  knew  I  was  coming,  and  when  my  name  Avas  announced  re- 
ceived me  frankly,  and  almost  as  if  I  had  been  an  old  acquaintance. 
His  wife  seems  about  forty  years  old,  and  was  dressed  in  black,  —  a  color 
she  has  constantly  worn  since  the  death  of  their  only  child,  a  daugh- 
ter of  fourteen,  who  died  on  theii*  journey  in  the  East.  She  avoids 
the  world  and  general  society,  and  receives  only  gentlemen  who  visit 
her  husband.  She  talked  well  with  me  about  the  Abbe  de  Lamennais, 
and  his  "  Livre  du  Peuple"  ;  and  showed  herself  to  be,  what  I  believe 
she  really  is,  a  lady  of  much  intellectual  accomplishment. 

Lamartine  himself,  I  think,  is  about  forty-five  years  old,  thin  in  per- 
son, but  dignified  and  graceful  in  his  manners,  and  with  a  very  fine 
style  of  head,  —  a  head  and  countenance,  indeed,  that  may  be  called 
poetical.  He  is,  I  should  imagine,  nervous  and  sensitive  ;  and  walks 
up  and  down  in  the  back  part  of  his  saloon,  talking  with  only  one,  or 
at  most  two  persons,  who  walk  with  him.  This,  I  am  told,  is  his 
habit,  and  that  it  is  not  agreeable  to  him  to  talk  when  sitting.  In  the 
course  of  half  an  hour,  thus  walking  and  talking  with  him,  only  two 
things  struck  me,  —  his  complete  ignorance  of  the  present  English  lit- 
erature, and  the  strong  expression  of  his  poetical  faith  that  the  recent 
improvements  in  material  life,  like  steam  and  railroads,  have  their 
poetical  side,  and  will  be  used  for  poetical  purjDoses  with  success.  He 
was  as  curious  about  America  and  American  literature  as  was  polite, 
but  I  think  cares  really  very  little  about  either.  His  table  was  cov- 
ered, and  even  heaped,  with  recent  publications  by  living  autliors, 
who  wish  to  get  a  word  or  a  smile  from  the  reigning  favorite  ;  for 
nobody  now  publishes  anything  in  elegant  literature  without  sending 
him  a  copy,  I  am  told. 

December  25.  — .  .  .  .  In  the  evening  I  went  to  Jomard's,  at  the 
[Royal]  Library.  He  is  now  the  head  of  that  vast  establishment,  as 
well  as  the  head  of  all  Egyptian  knowledge  in  the  world  ;  indeed, 
from  the  time  of  Bonaparte's  expedition  to  Eg}^t  down  to  the  pres- 
ent day,  he  has  been  one  of  the  principal  members  of  the  Institute, 
and  one  of  their  most  learned  men.  He  is  now  old,  and  his  eyes  are 
bad,  but  he  has  much  reputation  for  kindness  of  disposition,  and  re- 
ceives, gladly  and  agreeably,  all  men  of  learning. 


[ 


118  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1837. 

To-niglit  was  his  first  soiree  for  the  season,  and  I  found  his  rooms 
filled  with  books,  curiosities,  and  interesting  people.  Among  those  I 
was  most  glad  to  see,  and  with  whom  I  chietiy  talked,  were  Aime 
Martm,  the  editor  of  Moliere,  who  was  outrageous  in  his  ignorance 
of  America  ;  and  Ternaux,*  whose  acquaintance  I  made  diligently, 
because  Fauriel  tells  me  he  has  one  of  the  finest  libraries  of  Spanish 
literature  in  the  Avorld.  It  was  more  of  a  meetmg  for  learned  men 
than  any  I  have  seen  in  Paris. 

December  26.  —  I  spent  an  hour  this  morning  with  Mignet,  at  the 
Afi'aires  Etrangeres,  where,  since  1830,  he  has  had  a  comfortable  and 
agreeable  office  at  the  head  of  the  Archives.  Considering  the  part  he 
took  in  the  Revolution,  and  the  length  of  time  that  has  elapsed  since 
he  published  his  History,  he  looks  to  me  very  young.  In  fact,  he 
does  not  seem  to  be  thirty-five  years  old  ;  but  he  must  be  older,  and 
is  one  of  the  finest-looking  men  I  have  seen  in  France.  He  is,  too, 
acute,  and  has  winning  manners.  I  do  not  wonder,  therefore,  that  he 
is  popular.  This  moiiiing,  after  some  general  conversation,  he  was 
curious  to  learn  from  me  any  j)articulars  I  could  give  him  about  Mr. 
Edward  Livingston,  on  whom  it  is  his  duty,  as  Secretary  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Moral  Sciences,  to  pronounce  an  eloge  next  spring. 

Count  Balbo,  who  is  here  from  Turin,  on  account  of  the  death  of 
Villeneuve,  father  of  his  late  wife,  dined  with  me  ;  and  we  had  a 
great  deal  of  agreeable  talk  upon  old  matters  and  old  recollections,  as 
well  as  upon  things  passing. 

Afterwards  I  went  with  him  to  see  Mad.  de  Pastoret,  the  Mad.  de 
Fleury  of  Miss  Edgeworth.t  She  is,  of  course,  much  altered  since  I 
knew  her  in  1818- 19  ;  but  she  is  well,  and  able  to  devote  herself,  as 
she  always  has  done,  to  works  of  most  faithful  and  wise  charity.  Her 
fortune,  and  that  of  her  family,  is  large  ;  but  being  Carlists,  and  sm- 
cerely  and  conscientiously  so,  they  gave  up  offices  in  1830,  to  the 
aggregate  amount  of  180,000  francs  a  year,  including  the  dignity  of 
Chancellor  of  France.  The  Marquis  de  Pastoret  is  now  the  legal 
guardian  of  the  Duke  de  Bordeaux,;};  though  from  his  great  age  the 
duties  of  the  office  are  chiefly  exercised  by  his  son,  the  Count.  Once 
a  week,  however,  he  holds  publicly,  in  his  hotel,  a  Council  on  the 

*  M.  Henri  Ternatix-Compans. 

t  See  Vol.  I.  p.  255  et  seq.  "  Madame  de  Fleury  "  is  the  title  of  one  of  the 
Tales  of  Fashionable  Life,  by  Miss  Edgeworth,  which  is  founded  on  incidents 
of  Madame  de  Pastoret's  experience.  M.  de  Pastoret  received  the  title  of 
Marquis  from  Louis  XVIIL 

t  Comte  de  Chambord. 


.E.  46.]  FRENCH  INSTITUTE.  110 

affairs  of  the  Duke  de  Bordeaux,  or  Henry  V.,  as  they  of  course  caU 
him.  The  government  is  wise  enough  not  to  notice  this  sort  of  sin- 
cere and  honest  treason  ;  and  hitely,  therefore,  when  a  violent  Car- 
list  was  reproaching  the  reigning  family  with  im  esprit  vraiment  2)<^rs^- 
cuteur,  Mad.  de  Pastoret  said,  in  her  gentle  and  beautiful,  but  decided 
mamier,  "  Je  crois.  Monsieur,  que  nous  sommes  une  forte  preuve  du 
contraire  de  tout  cela." 

Mad.  de  Pastoret  has  the  distinguished  honor  of  being  the  first  per- 
son to  imagine  and  establish  an  infant  school,  and  she  told  me  to- 
night that  she  had  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  grandchildren  of  her 
first  objects  of  charity  coming  daily  to  receive  its  benefits,  with  — 
in  several  instances  —  the  same  matrons  to  take  care  of  them.  Un- 
til lately  she  was  the  Lady  President  of  these  institutions  in  France  ; 
but  this  year  the  Ministry  thought  fit  —  perhaps  wisely  —  to  put 
them  under  the  j)rotection  and  control  of  the  University,  and  as  she 
said  to-night,  "  the  wife  of  M.  de  Pastoret  could  not  with  propriety 
enter  into  relations  with  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  "  ;  so  that 
she  resigned  her  place,  without,  however,  giving  up  her  interest  or 
diminishing  her  real  exertions  in  the  cause.  I  was  delighted  to  see 
her  again,  and  to  find  her  still,  though  nearly  seventy-five  years  old, 
so  full  of  the  talent,  gentleness,  and  practical  wisdom  that  have  al- 
ways marked  her  character.  Among  other  little  things  I  learnt  from 
her  to-night  is  the  fact  that  "  de  Fleury "  is  not  an  invented  name, 
but  the  name  of  an  estate  belonging  to  her,  and  taken  as  such  by 
Miss  Edgeworth,  whom  she  knows,  personally,  extremely  well. 

After  spending  an  hour  with  her  I  went  to  Guizot's  and  spent  an- 
other. His  modest  rooms  were  full  of  peers  and  deputies,  of  whom 
I  think  an  hundred,  at  least,  were  there  at  different  times  while  I 
stayed  ;  among  them  were  Decazes,^  Lamartine,  and  nearly  all  the 
principal  Doctrinaires 

December  27.  —  We  spent  three  or  four  hours  this  mornmg  at  the 
meeting  of  the  class  of  Moral  Sciences  of  the  Institute.  It  was  their 
annual  meeting,  and  their  fine  rotunda  was  filled  with  a  fashionable 
audience  of  gentlemen  and  ladies.  The  members  of  the  class  of  Moral 
Sciences  were  there  in  their  uniform,  the  other  Academicians  in  their 
common  dress.  It  was  a  goodly  show,  and  a  dignified  one.  The  pres- 
ident announced  the  prizes  for  the  next  year,  and  then  gave,  with  very 
little  ceremonv,  a  medal  of  fifteen  hundred  francs  to  a  voung  man 
named  Barthelemy  de  St.  Hilaire  for  a  dissertation  on  the  Organon 
of  Aristotle.     After  this  Mignet  read,  for  above  an  hour,  an  eloge  and 


*  See  Vol.  I.  p.  253  ct  seq. 


120  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TTCKNOR.  [1837. 

biography  of  Roederer,  very  brilliantly  written,  and  in  reading  which 
he  was  often  interrupted  by  very  hearty  rounds  of  applause  ;  and  the 
whole  was  concluded  by  parts  of  a  memoir  of  the  state  of  the  civil  law 
of  France,  considered  in  its  relations  with  the  economical  condition 
of  society,  by  Rossi,  —  again  frequently  interrupted  by  applause,  — 
which  was  admirable  for  its  soundness,  wisdom,  and  strength,  worthy 
of  a  solemn  academical  occasion.  As  a  meeting,  it  had  more  of  dig- 
nity in  it,  and  seemed  better  to  fulfil  its  purpose,  than  any  meeting  of 
the  sort  at  which  I  remember  to  have  been  present.  There  was  really 
a  good  deal  to  be  learned  at  it  by  those  who  went  with  a  wish  to  be 
taught. 

In  the  evening  I  went  a  little  while  to  Baron  Pichon's,  where  I 
found  a  form  of  soiree  different  from  the  common  one  at  Paris ;  almost 
everybody  gravely  seated  at  whist,  —  deputies,  peers,  and  all.  But  I 
had  some  strong  talk  with  M.  Pichon  himself,  with  whom  it  is  not 
easily  possible  to  have  anything  else,  so  masculine  is  his  mind  and  so 
practical  and  business-like  the  tone  of  his  faculties.  However,  I  could 
stay  only  a  short  time.  We  had  promised  to  take  Mad.  Martinetti  to 
the  de  Broglies'  to-night. 

It  was  the  evening  of  her  grande  reception,  and,  arriving  at  about  ten 
o'clock,  we  found  her  beautiful  saloon  open,  and  the  notahilites  of  the 
time  coming  and  cjoing.  The  Russian  Ambassador  was  there  ;  Guizot 
and  a  plenty  of  Doctrinaire  peers  and  deputies  ;  the  Countess  de  Ste. 
Aulaire  and  her  accomplished  daughters  ;  the  Duchess  of  Massa :  the 
well-known  Princess  Lieven,  Avho  figured  so  long  in  London  ;  Janvier, 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  ;  the  d'Haus- 
sonvilles,  etc.  Everything  was  very  brilliant,  but  it  was  less  agree- 
able than  on  the  -petites  soirees.  We  stayed  late,  however,  for  Mad. 
Martinetti  enjoyed  it  so  weU  that  she  did  not  at  all  like  to  come 
away. 

December  28.  —  ....  In  the  evening  I  was  presented  at  Court, 
which  took  a  tedious  while  ;  for  I  left  home  before  seven  o'clock  and 
did  not  get  back  till  nearly  ten,  the  first  hour  being  spent  in  assem- 
bling, with  eight  or  ten  other  Americans,  at  General  Cass's  and  get- 
ting to  the  palace,  an  hour  and  a  half  at  the  palace  itself,  and  half  an 

hour  to  find  mv  carriage  and  get  home I  think  about  an  bun- 

dred  and  thirty  persons  were  presented.  Of  these,  perhaps  seven  or 
eight  were  Austrians,  sixty  or  more  English,  one  Russian,  — my  friend 
Tourccueneff,  —  and  the  rest  chiefiv  Germans,  with  a  few  Italians 
and  Spaniards.  The  Russians  are  hardly  permitted  to  come  to  Paris 
now,  or,  if  they  do  come,  hardly  dare  to  be  presented  at  Court,  so 


M.  46.]  ROYAL  FAMILY.  121 


small  is  the  ill-will  of  the  Emperor,  and  so  detailed  his  iiKiuisitiou 
into  private  affairs.  Toiirgueneff  avowed  it  to  me  as  we  went  up  the 
stairs. 

"When  we  were  all  arranged  in  a  row  round  the  two  halls  of  audi- 
ence, with  the  ambassadors  and  ministers  in  the  order  of  their  recep- 
tion at  Court,  the  King,  the  Queen  with  the  Princess  Clementine  on 
her  arm,  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  Madame  Adelaide,  and  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  entered  and  went  round,  speaking  generally  a  word  to  each 
individual  as  he  was  presented  ;  for  w^e  were  all  gentlemen,  the  ladies 
being  presented  later.  It  took  them  a  little  more  than  an  hour. 
One  thing  was  soon  apparent  from  their  manners.  They  wished  to 
please. 

....  The  King  came  first.  He  is  stout  without  being  fat,  and 
clumsy  from  having  too  short  legs.  He  spoke  English  to  all  the  Eng- 
lish and  to  all  the  Americans,  and  spoke  it  uncommonly  well.  He 
asked  me  about  my  former  visit  to  Paris,  inquired  particularly  after 
Mr.  Gallatin,  and  praised  Boston  and  its  hospitalities,  which  he  said  he 
remembered  with  much  pleasure  and  gratitude.  He  took  some  time 
to  say  this,  of  course,  and  bowed  and  smiled  most  profusely.  The 
Queen  came  next.  She  looked  much  older  than  he  does,  is  very  thin 
and  gray-headed,  and  seemed  worn  and  anxious.  But  she,  too,  smiled 
abundantly,  and  asked  me  about  the  differences  between  Paris  now 
and  when  I  was  here  before  ;  which  adroitly  relieved  her  from  the 
necessity  of  saying  much  herself.  She  spoke  French  to  me,  as  did  all 
the  ladies  to  those  who  could  understand  it.  Her  lovely  daughter, 
with  the  most  intellectual  countenance  in  the  family,  looked  very 
naturally  uninterested,  and  only  courtesied  to  each  as  she  passed,  with- 
out thinking  it  necessary  to  smile  or  to  speak  to  anybody.  She  was 
dressed  with  perfect  simplicity,  in  a  light  pink  satin,  without  lace  or 
ornament  of  any  kind  on  any  part  of  her  person.  She  must  be  admit- 
ted to  be  lovely,  perhaps  beautiful,  but  certainly  she  had  a  very  dull 
time  to-night. 

After  her  came  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  the  only  one  much  dressed. 
She  wore  many  diamonds,  and,  without  being  beautiful,  is  very  good- 
looking,  graceful,  and  winning.  She  spoke  to  me  in  German,  and 
said  some  very  pretty  things  about  Germany,  and  how  much  she  still 
loves  her  "  Yaterland,"  where,  she  said,  the  people  are  so  true  and  so 
happy.  Her  manner  was  more  natural  than  that  of  any  of  the  rest 
of  the  family.  Indeed,  perhaps  it  was  quite  natural.  Mad.  Ade- 
laide, w^ho  followed,  is  short  and  stout,  like  her  brother,  whom  she 
resembles  both  in  countenance  and  in  an  air  of  firm,  full  health. 

VOL.  II.  6 


122  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1837. 

She  spoke  to  me,  in  French,  of  the  great  pleasure  her  brother  had  in 
the  United  States,  and  how  well  he  remembered  our  hospitalities ; 
and  said,  with  great  emphasis,  repeatedly,  that  they  were  always  glad 
to  see  the  Americans  at  the  Tuileries.  And  so  she  played  her  part. 
The  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  closed  the  scene,  spoke  English  well,  but 
had  nothing  to  say.  He  is  a  pretty  fellow,  but  looks  feeble  in  intel- 
lect, and  was  embarrassed  in  the  merest  commonplaces  of  asking  me 
about  my  journey ings  and  residence  in  France 

December  29.  —  ....  In  the  evening  we  went  first  to  Mad.  Mojon's, 
where  the  party  was  much  as  usual  ;  and  to  Mrs.  Garnett's 

About  half  past  ten  I  went  with  a  couple  of  friends  to  the  great 
gambling-house  which  passes  under  the  name  of  Frascati. 

It  was  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  ever  was  in  a  large  establishment 
of  the  sort,  or,  indeed,  at  any,  except  such  as  are  seen  at  watering- 
places  ;  and  I  shall  j^robably  never  see  another,  for  it  is  one  of  the 
good  deeds  of  Louis  Philippe's  government  that,  after  having  abol- 
ished lotteries,  it  has  now  ordered  all  public  gaming-houses  to  be 
closed  from  January  1,  1838,  that  is,  in  two  days.  This  evening  we 
found  the  rooms  full,  but  not  crowded 

The  usual  marks  of  superstition  accompanied  some  of  the  more  regu- 
lar gamblers.  One  person  kept  a  sou  constantly  in  a  particular  posi- 
tion on  the  table  as  a  sort  of  luck-pemiy ;  and  another,  a  woman,  as 
soon  as  she  had  put  dowTi  her  money,  shut  her  eyes,  and  muttered 
something  ■without  looking  up,  till  the  result  was  announced. 

The  person  that  interested  me  the  most,  howeA'^er,  was  a  middle- 
aged  man,  who  played  upon  a  somewhat  ingenious  system  ;  waiting, 
perhaps,  thirty  or  forty  times,  till  he  found  three  numbers  that  had 
7iot  come  up  at  all,  and  then  playing  and  doubling  on  those  three  till 
he  won.  He  was  a  large  gainer  while  I  watched  him  ;  but  I  take  it, 
his  system,  like  the  systems  of  all  gamblers,  would  not  stand  before 
La  Place's  "  Calcul  des  Probabilites,"  and  that,  in  the  long  run,  the 
table  would  ruin  him,  as  it  does  evervbodv  else. 

I  reached  home  by  twelve  o'clock,  having  found  my  visit  little  curi- 
ous or  interesting.  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  more  so  if  I  had 
stayed  later  ;  for  the  company  was  increasing  fast  when  I  came  away, 
and  the  older  faces  there  looked  as  if  it  would  take  a  lon^  sittin<:r  to 

O  O 

work  them  up  to  anything  like  external  excitement,  so  hard  were 
they,  and  settled.  But  to  me  it  was  all  simply  wearisome  and  disa- 
greeable. 

December  30.  —  I  took  the  whole  of  this  evening  to  go  with  Count 
Circourt  all  the  way  to  the  Bibliotheque  de  I'Arsenal,  to  see  Charles 


M.  46.]  CHARLES  NODIER.  123 


Nodier,  who  is  its  librarian.  It  took  us  nearly  an  hour  to  drive  there, 
and  another  to  return,  and  yet  in  the  time  of  Henry  IV.,  and  even  in 
the  time  of  Louis  XIII.,  that  was  the  fashionable  part  of  the  city  ;  so 
much  is  everything  changed  in  Paris.  The  bad  part  of  the  matter, 
however,  was  that  we  did  not  see  Nodier.  Circoui't  had  warned  me 
beforehand,  that  when  his  daughter  and  her  husband  chance  to  go  out, 
Nodier,  who  is  a  whimsical  old  fellow,  not  being  able  to  make  uj)  his 
party  of  whist  with  his  wife  alone,  goes  to  bed  and  takes  to  his  bib- 
liographical studies.  Unluckily,  as  we  entered  his  grim  old  residence, 
at  nine  o'clock,  we  met  his  daughter  in  a  ball-dress  just  coming  out 
for  a  party  in  the  gay  quarter  of  the  city  from  which  we  were  just 
arrived  ;  and  instantly  afterward  received  Mad.  Nodier's  melancholy 
exclamation  that  her  husband  was  in  bed.  Nothing  remained  but  to 
sit  down  and  be  agreeable  to  IV^^d.  Nodier  for  nearly  an  hour,  which 
we  did  faithfully.  Luckily,  she  is  an  agreeable  person  herself,  so  that 
we  were  not  so  badly  off  as  we  might  have  been.  The  best  of  the 
matter  was  the  drive  of  two  hours  with  Circourt,  who,  at  my  request, 
related  to  me  in  great  detail,  and  with  picturesque  effect,  what  he 
knew  of  the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  of  July,  1830,  when  he  was 
the  confidential  Secretary  of  Foreign  Affairs  for  Prince  Polignac. 


124  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 


CHAPTEE    VII. 

Thierry.  —  Duchess  de  Rauzan.  —  BastarcVs  Work  on  Painting  in 
the  Dark  Ages.  —  Montalemhert.  —  Mad.  Murat.  —  Mad.  Amable 
Tastu.  —  Princess  Belgiojoso.  —  Thiers.  —  Debate  in  the  Cliamber  of 
Peers.  —  CJiateaiibriand.  —  Politics.  —  Farewells.  —  General  View  of 
Society,  etc. 

JOURNAL. 

January  2, 1838.  —  I  passed  this  evening  mth  Thieny,  who  talked 
well  on  the  subject  of  the  Communes  in  France  ;  of  the  manuscripts 
relating  to  the  history  of  the  country  still  in  existence  ;  of  the  new 
plan  of  a  Commission  relating  to  them,  just  submitted  by  the  Minis- 
ter of  Public  Instruction,  which  Thierry  thinks  will  fail ;  of  the  poli- 
tics of  the  times  ;  and  of  the  affairs  of  Canada. 

He  is  much  skilled  in  etymology,  and  thinks  our  etjanologies  of 
the  word  "  Yankee "  are  all  Avrong,  and  that,  having  arisen  from  the 
collision  and  jeerings  of  the  Dutch  and  the  English,  in  New  York  and 
New  England,  it  is  from  the  Dutch  "  Jan,"  —  pronounced  Yan,  — 
John,  with  the  very  common  diminutive  "  kee,"  and  ''  doodlen,"  to 
quaver  ;  which  would  make  the  whole,  "  quavering,"  or  "  psalm- 
singing,"  "  Jacky,"  or  "  Johnny."     "  Doodle-sack  "  means  bag-pipe. 

Johnny  would  refer  to  John  Bull ;  and  if  "doodlen"  be  made  in 
the  present  tense,  "  Yankee-doodle  "  would  be  "  Johnny  that  sings 
Psalms."  "  Hart-kee,"  my  little  dear  heart,  and  hundreds  of  other 
diminutives,  both  in  endearment  and  in  ridicule,  are  illustrations  of 
the  formation  of  the  word.  It  amused  me  not  a  little,  and  seems 
probable  enough  as  an  etymology  ;  better,  certainly,  than  to  bring  it, 
with  Noah  Webster,  from  the  Persian. 

January  5.  —  We  went  last  evening  to  Miss  Clarke's,  where  there 
was  rather  more  of  a  party  than  usual,  collected  by  formal  invita- 
tion. Fauriel  was  there,  of  course,  and  Mohl  ;  but  there  was,  also, 
a  number  of  ladies,  among  whom  were  Mad.  Tastu,  the  well- 
known  authoress;  the  Princess  Belgiojoso,  —  the  well-known  lady 
of  fashion,  and  one  of  the  most  striking  and  distinguees  persons  in 


^.46.]  COUNT  bastard's  WORK  ON  PAINTING.  125 

Parisian  society  ;  the  Countess  cle  Roy,  who  also  figures  in  the  sa- 
loons, etc.  I  met,  too,  several  men  of  note,  whom  I  was  glad  to  talk 
with,  —  Baron  d'Eckstein,  the  opponent  of  Lamennais  ;  Merimee,  the 
author  of  "  Clara  Gazul,"  and  now  employed  by  the  government  to 
collect  whatever  relates  to  the  ancient  monuments  of  French  art  ; 
Mignet,  the  historian  ;  Elie  de  Beaumont,  the  great  geologist  ;  the 
two  Tourgueneffs,  etc.  It  was  as  intellectual  a  party  as  I  have  been 
with  since  we  came  to  Paris,  except  at  Jomard's  ;  and  I  enjoyed  it 
very  much.  Merimee,  however,  disappointed  me.  He  is  affected, 
and  makes  pretensions  to  exclusiveness.  He  ought  to  be  above  such 
follies. 

January  6.  —  I  went  this  evening  to  the  first  soiree  of  the  season 
at  the  Duchess  de  Bauzan's,  the  headquarters  of  the  more  intellectual 
and  more  fashionable  of  the  Carlists.  She  is  the  daughter  of  the  ad- 
mirable Duchess  de  Duras,  whom  I  used  to  know  here,  nineteen  years 
ago  ;  "^  and  she  remembered  me  enough  to  signify  her  pleasure  that  I 
should  come  to  see  her.  So  I  went,  but  she  does  not  receive  till  half 
past  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  that  is  a  little  too  ultra-fashionable  for 
my  comfort.  I  found  there  the  Marquise  de  Podenas,  who  was  the 
lady  that  managed  so  long  the  affairs  of  the  Duchess  de  Berri  ;* 
Mile,  de  Bethune,  of  the  old  Sully  family  ;  a  fine,  white-headed  old 
Duke,  of  the  time  and  with  the  manners  and  dress  of  the  reign  of 
Louis  XVI.  ;  Count  Circourt ;  the  Baron  d'Eckstein  ;  Count  Bastard, 
etc. 

The  last  person  has  been  employed  for  twenty  years  —  with  the  as- 
sistance of  the  successive  governments  that  have  prevailed  in  France 
—  in  collecting  from  manuscript  miniatures  the  materials  for  a  his- 
tory of  painting,  from  the  fall  of  the  art  in  the  fourth  century  to  its 
entire  restoration  under  Raffaelle.  The  first  numbers  will  come  out 
in  May  next ;  there  will  be  forty-two  in  all,  and  the  average  cost 
of  each  copy  of  each  number  will  be  eleven  hundred  francs.  He 
prints,  and  illuminates,  and  paints  sixty  copies  for  the  government 
and  nine  for  himself ;  and  though  the  government  allows  him  two 
millions  of  francs,  yet,  like  a  true  Carlist  as  he  is,  he  complains  that 
it  should  come  through  the  budget,  and  be  distributed  through  seven 
years,  instead  of  being  given  all  at  once,  and  without  condition.  He 
interested  me  very  much  for  an  hour  by  the  details  of  his  undertak- 
ing. His  reason  for  taking  his  materials  for  the  History  of  Paint- 
ing in  the  Middle  Ages  from  manuscripts  entirely,  is,  that  he  can  in 

*  See  Vol.  I.  p.  254  et  seq. 
t  See  ante,  p.  41. 


126  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

no  other  way  get  them  quite  authentic^  while  in  the  manuscripts  he 
can  get  them  with  accurate  dates. 

January  8.  —  We  went  this  evening  a  little  while  to  Thierry's,  by 
appointment  with  the  Circourts,  whom  we  met  there.  Thierry  him- 
self we  found  in  the  same  chair  and  in  the  same  position  in  which  he 
is  always  seen,  but  with  the  same  spirit  that  raises  him  above  his 
bodily  infirmities.  He  talked  about  Manzoni,  and  repeated  long  pas- 
sages of  the  "Adelchi";  he  talked  about  the  present  state  of  painting 
in  France  ;  and  about  the  Canadians,  in  whom  he  takes  a  great  in- 
terest, and  to  whom,  for  the  sake  of  their  French  names  and  origin, 
his  heart  warms,  till  he  wishes  them  success.*  On  all  these  various 
points  he  talked  well,  with  interest,  and  even  with  enthusiasm,  for- 
getting, apparently,  —  when  he  spoke  of  painting,  for  instance,  or  the 
opera,  —  that  he  cannot  hope  ever  again  to  enjoy  either  of  them. 

We  finished  the  evening  at  Mad,  de  Broglie's,  where  we  met  Yille- 
main  ;  Duchatel,  one  of  the  ministers  of  Louis  Philippe  ;  with  Gui- 
zot,  Lady  Elgin,  and  two  or  three  others ;  besides  Doudan  and  the 
d'Haussonvilles,  who  are  always  there.  It  was  a  tres  petite  soiree,  and 
very  agreeable 

January  10.  —  It  was  the  first  grand  ball  of  the  season  to-night  at 
the  Tuileries,  and  we  went,  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  to  see  the 

show.     It  was,  what  is  rare  in  such  cases,  worth  the  trouble 

Between  three  and  four  thousand  persons  were  collected  in  the  grand 
halls  ;  but  still  there  was  no  crowd,  so  vast  was  the  space,  and  so  well 
was  the  multitude  attracted  and  distributed  through  the  different 
rooms.  Nothing  could  well  be  more  brilliant  than  the  lighting, 
nothinor  more  tasteful  than  the  dresses.  I  have  seen  more  diamonds 
both  in  Dresden  and  in  Madrid  ;  and,  indeed,  the  Duchess  of  An- 
glona,  to-night,  made  more  show  than  anybody  else,  with  the  dia- 
monds that,  I  suppose,  I  used  to  see  worn  by  the  old  Duchess  of 
Ossuna,  twenty  years  ago 

Ha\'ing  quite  accidentally  fallen  in  with  Mad.  Martinetti,  the  Count 
and  Countess  Baldissero,  and  the  Spanish  Ambassador  Campuzano, 
we  made  one  party  with  them  till  about  one  o'clock,  when  the  ladies 
went  in  together  to  supper.  We  gentlemen  stood  and  saw  them  pass 
through,  to  the  number  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred.  It  was  a  beau- 
tiful sight.  After  the  King  and  Queen,  nobody  attracted  so  much 
attention  as  the  very  picturesque  Princess  Belgiojoso.  But  the  whole 
was  striking.  The  supper,  which  was  in  the  theatre  of  the  palace, 
was,  I  am  told,  both  magnificent  and  tasteful,  and  offered  a  cou}) 

*  This  was  during  the  Cauadiau  insurrection,  called  the  Papineau  Rebellion. 


^.  4G.]  PRINCESS  BELGIOJOSO.  127 


d'mil  wliicli  would  have  sutisfted  an  Oriental  I'uncy  ;  but  though,  alter 
the  ladies  had  supped,  the  gentlemen  were  admitted,  the  crowd  was 
so  dense  and  the  struggle  so  unruly  that  I  would  not  undertake  it. 

January  12.  —  This  evening  I  carried  Count  Ball)o  to  Thierry's, 
and  introduced  him  to  them.  Balbo  has  written  a  good  deal  on  the 
early  history  of  modern  Europe,  and  occupied  himself  with  the  Com- 
munes of  Italy,  so  that  they  had  high  converse  together,  which  I  en- 
joyed. Thierry  was  striking  in  his  positions  and  in  their  illustration, 
as  he  always  is. 

January  13.  —  I  went  this  evening  to  the  Princess  Belgiojoso's. 
Her  house  and  style  of  reception  are  as  picturesque  as  herself,  and 
savor  strongly — even  to  the  hot  climate  she  makes  in  this  cold 
weather  —  of  her  Italy.  There  was  much  fashion  there,  and  many 
men  of  letters  :  Mignet,  Fauriel,  Mohl,  Quinet,  Baron  d'Eckstein,  etc. 
I  saw,  too,  for  the  first  time,  the  Count  de  Montalembert  and  his 
graceful  wife,  who  was  a  Belgian  Merode.  I  was  surprised  to  find  the 
Count,  who  is  already  so  famous  by  his  ultra  Catholic  and  liberal 
tone,  both  in  the  Chamber  of  Peers  and  in  his  writings,  to  be  so  young 
a  man.  He  will  certainly  be  much  distinguished  if  he  lives,  notwith- 
standing his  sort  of  poetical  fanaticism,  which  accords  but  ill  with  his 
free  tone  in  politics.     His  conversation  is  acute,  but  not  remarkable. 

January  14.  —  I  spent  the  early  part  of  the  evening  at  the  Countess 
Lipona's,  the  name  under  which  Madame  Murat  passes  here.*  She 
is  a  very  good-looking,  stout  person,  nearly  sixty  years  old,  I  suppose, 
and  with  lady-like  and  rather  benevolent  manners.  She  lives  in  good 
style,  but  without  splendor  ;  and,  like  the  rest  of  her  family,  allows 
those  about  her  to  call  her  Reine.  Prince  Musignano  was  there,  and 
perhaps  in  the  course  of  an  hour  twenty  people  came  in,  for  it  was 
her  reception  evening  ;  but  the  whole,  I  suppose,  was  Bonapartist, 
for  I  happen  to  know  that  those  who  wish  to  stand  well  with  Louis 
Philippe  avoid  her  doors  ;  a  weakness  on  his  part  as  great  as  that 
which,  on  hers,  permits  her  to  be  called  Queen 

January  17.  —  I  passed  a  large  part  of  to-day  with  H.  Ternaux, 
who  was  formerlv  in  the  United  States,  since  which  time  he  has  been 

in  French  diplomacy My  object  was  to  see  his  library,  which 

is  curious  in  many  respects,  especially  in  old  Spanish  literature  and 
in  early  American  history.  He  kept  me  occupied  till  dark,  in  looking 
at  a  succession  of  rarities  and  curiosities,  such  as  I  have  not  seen  before 
for  many  a  day. 

*  Caroline  Bonaparte.  Lipoua  is  an  anagram  of  Napoli,  her  former  king- 
dom. 


128  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

January  20.  —  At  Lamartine's  this  evening,  walking  up  and  down 
his  salon^  —  as  is  his  wont,  —  he  talked  a  good  deal  about  himself.  He 
said  he  wrote  no  poetry  till  he  was  twenty-nine  years  old,  prevented, 
as  he  thinks,  by  the  fougue  de  ses  'passions.  He  left  it  again  as  soon 
as  he  obtained  diplomatic  employment,  because  he  much  prefers  the 
business  of  the  state  to  anything  else,  and  holds  it  to  be  a  duty  higher 
and  more  honorable.  He  liked  his  place  as  Minister  at  Florence  very 
much,  and  he  likes  his  occupations  as  Deputy.  In  the  summer,  when 
in  the  country,  he  still  writes  poetry,  and  has  finished  this  year  a 
poem  of  some  length  ;  but  he  makes  everything  of  the  sort  to  yield 
to  public  affairs.  Indeed,  he  says  he  regards  poetry  as  the  occupation 
of  youth  and  of  old  age,  each  of  which  has  its  appropriate  tone  and 
vein  ;  while  middle  age  should  be  given,  as  Milton,  Dante,  and  Pe- 
trarca  gave  it,  to  the  business  of  the  country  and  to  patriotism.  There 
was,  perhaps,  a  little  affectation  in  this,  but  not  much.  His  charac- 
ter seems  frank,  if  not  entirely  natural.  In  speaking  on  politics,  he 
said  that  he  was  the  first  person  who  urged  Thiers  to  adopt  the  sys- 
tem of  Spanish  intervention,  and  that  it  was  long  before  he  could 
persuade  him  to  it  ;  but  that  he  little  imagined  Thiers  would  be 
so  absurd  as  to  make  it  a  cabinet  question,  when  it  was  one  which 
would  need  much  time  to  be  understood  aright  even  in  the  Cliamber 
of  Deputies,  and  much  more  to  be  comprehended  by  the  nation.  I 
did  not  think  much  of  his  conversation  on  these  points  ;  it  was  chiefly 
an  unsuccessful  defence  of  himself,  which  to  me,  a  stranger,  he  ought 
to  have  known  was  uninteresting,  and,  as  far  as  he  himself  was  con- 
cerned, he  ought  to  have  known  was  unimportant 

January  27.  —  From  nine  to  ten  this  evening  I  spent  with  the  ven- 
erable and  admirable  Marchioness  de  Pastoret.  At  first  she  was  quite 
alone  ;  afterwards  the  Duke  de  Eauzan  came  in,  some  of  the  Crillons, 
the  Choiseuls,  etc.  She  receives  in  the  simplest  way,  in  her  bed- 
chamber ;  and  this  circumstance,  with  the  names  of  historical  import 
that  were  successively  announced,  seemed  to  carry  me  back  to  the 
days  of  Louis  XIV.  at  least,  if  not  to  those  of  Henry  IV.  It  was,  of 
course,  the  purest  Carlism  ;  but  if  it  was  nothing  else,  it  was  entirely 
respectable  and  elevated  in  its  tone.  Nothing  else  can  apj)roach 
Mad.  de  Pastoret 

January  28.  —  In  the  afternoon  we  made  a  visit  to  Mad.  Amable 
Tastu,  on  the  whole  the  most  distinguished  of  the  present  female 
authors  of  France.  She  is  about  five-and-forty  years  old,  I  should 
think,  very  gentle  in  her  manner,  and  of  an  excellent  reputation. 
Her  husband  has  lost  his  fortune,  and  not  showing  energy  enough  to 


M.  iQ.]  MAD.   AMABLE  TASTU.  129 

recover  it,  Mad.  Tastii  lias  for  some  years  supported  her  family  by 
her  pen.  Her  poems,  in  three  volumes,  are  the  best  of  her  works, 
and  indeed  she  has  not  published  much  else.  These  are  very  good  of 
their  sort,  and  sometimes  remind  me,  as  she  herself  does,  both  in  her 
fortunes  and  her  character,  of  Mrs.  Hemans.  She  talked  well  this 
afternoon,  and  her  French,  both  in  accent  and  in  phraseology,  was 
j)articularly  beautiful.  Her  appearance  denotes  feeble  health,  and 
I  am  told  that  she  works  too  hard,  writing  much  for  the  periodicals 
to  earn  a  subsistence 

January  30. —  ....  The  beginning  of  the  evening  I  spent  at 
Thierry's.  There  was  no  company,  and  I  had  a  great  deal  of  pleasant 
talk  with  him  about  his  occupations,  and  his  projected  history  of  the 
Merovingians  ;  a  prodigious  work  for  one  broken  down  with  such 
calamities  as  he  is.''^ 

Afterwards  I  went  to  Guizot's,  and  found  a  plenty  of  deputies, 
the  Greek  Ambassador,  in  his  costiune,  and  the  Baron  de  Barante, 
with  his  beautiful  wife,  now  spending  the  winter  in  Paris,  on  leave 
of  absence  from  St.  Petersburg,  where  he  is  French  Ambassador,  t  He 
is  much  altered  since  I  knew  him  before  ;  but  still  looks  well,  and 
talks  as  becomes  the  author  of  the  "  History  of  the  Dukes  of  Bur- 
gundy." As  I  arrived  late,  only  a  portion  of  the  evening's  party  re- 
mained, and  I  was  glad  of  it ;  for  Guizot's  rooms  are  small,  and  his 
friends  numerous. 

January  31.  —  ....  I  dined  to-day  at  the  Duke  de  Broglie's  ;  a 
dinner  made  in  honor  of  the  Baron  de  Barante,  and  the  Count  de 
Ste.  Aulaire,  French  Ambassadors  at  St.  Petersburg  and  Vienna,  now 
here  on  leave  of  absence.  It  was,  of  course,  a  little  ceremonious,  and 
a  good  many  of  the  principal  Doctrinaires,  Guizot,  Duchatel,  etc., 
were  there.  Barante,  however,  was  missing,  and  was  waited  for  half 
an  hour  ;  and  when  we  sat  do\^Ti  at  table  it  was  plain  that  it  was 
a  political  dinner  ;  for,  except  Eynard  of  Geneva  and  myself,  every 
individual  was  of  political  note.  The  whole  conversation,  too,  was 
in  the  same  tone,  and  was  curious,  since  it  turned,  for  some  time,  on 
the  character  and  prospects  of  Thiers,  whom,  I  must  needs  say,  they 
treated  with  great  generosity.  Ste.  Aulaire  has  all  the  acuteness  and 
esprit  he  used  to  have  ;  but  he  is  grown  very  old,  and  looks,  more 
than  anybody  else  I  have  seen  here,  like  a  genuine  Frenchman  of 
the  ancien  regime,  his  hair  powdered,  and  his  physiognomy  belonging 

*  "  Recits  des  Temps  Merovingiens,"  1840  ;  a  charming  work,  made  directly 
from  the  early  chronicles. 
t  See  Vol.  I.  p.  256. 

6*  I 


130  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1838. 

to  the  theatre  rather  than  to  real  life.  After  dinner  I  talked  a  long 
time  with  him  about  Vienna,  Prince  Metternich,  etc.,  and  found  him 
very  amusing.  Nothing,  however,  of  his  conversation  indicates  in 
him  the  author  of  the  "  Histoire  de  la  Fronde/'  while  in  de  Barante 
it  is  quite  different.  Afterwards  Comit  Montalembert,  Tourgueneff, 
Yillemain,  and  a  crowd  of  other  people  came  in,  as  it  was  grancle 
reception,  and  I  came  home 

February  3.  —  I  divided  the  evening  between  the  Princess  Belgio- 
joso's  and  the  Duchess  de  Rauzan's  ;  both  their  saloons  were  full. 
In  both,  too,  I  found  Berryer,  the  leader  of  the  Carlists  in  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies,  and  their  most  able  agent  and  defender  in  France.  He 
talked  well.  Before  I  knew  who  he  was,  I  had  a  long  conversation 
with  him,  Mignet,  and  the  Princess,  on  the  present  state  of  the  French 
theatre,  and  was  much  struck  with  his  acuteness.  But  the  hours  kept 
at  these  fashionable  places  are  intolerable 

February  5.  —  I  dined  to-day  at  Baron  De  Gerando's,  with  a  tolera- 
bly large  party  of  men  of  letters,  whom  he  had  asked  to  meet  me, 
or  at  least  he  had  asked  Fauriel  and  one  or  two  others  on  mv  account ; 
Patin,  the  Professor  of  Latin  at  the  College  de  France,  the  remijlagant 
of  Yillemain  ;  Droz,  of  the  Academy  of  Moral  Sciences,  etc.  Tlie 
talk  was,  of  course,  all  on  literary  subjects,  and  Fauriel  was  clearly  the 
first  spirit  at  table.  In  the  evening,  it  being  De  Gerando's  reception 
evening,  a  crowd  came  in  ;  members  of  the  Institute,  peers,  deputies, 
and  men  of  letters  in  abundance.  At  ten  I  went  to  the  de  Broglies', 
where  I  found  only  Guizot  and  four  or  five  others,  and  had  a  most 
agreeable  time 

February  6.  —  This  evening  I  went  with  Mignet,  and  was  intro- 
duced at  Thiers'  house.  He  lives  in  a  good  deal  of  splendor,  with 
his  father-in-law,  the  banker  Dosne,  and  his  rooms  to-night  were  full, 
chiefly  of  deputies,  among  whom,  however,  I  distinguished  no  con- 
siderable notabilite,  except  Marshal  Maison  and  the  Count  Montalem- 
bert, who  is  of  the  Chamber  of  Peers.  However,  I  went  only  to  see 
Thiers,  and  looked  but  little  about  me.  He  is  a  short  man,  wearmg 
spectacles,  a  little  gray-headed,  though  hardly  above  forty  years  old, 
and  with  a  verv  natural  and  earnest,  but  somewhat  nervous  manner. 
He  talked  to  me  for  half  an  hour,  wholly  about  his  projected  history 
of  Florence  to  the  time  of  Cosmo  de'  Medici,  and  talked  with  great 
spirit  and  knowledge.  He  intends  it  as  a  development  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  means  to  divide  it  into  four  parts,  viz. 
Political  History,  History  of  the  Laws  and  Constitution,  History  of 
the  Commune,  and  History  of  the  Arts  and  Letters.     Thiers,  I  ought 


M.  46.]  CHAMBER  OF  PEERS.  131 

to  add,  surpassed  even  my  expectations,  in  tlie  brilliancy  as  well  a.s 
the  richness  of  his  conversation. 

February  9.  — This  evening,  at  Mad.  Mojon's,  I  found  the  custom- 
ary sprinkling  of  Italians,  Academicians,  and  political  personages. 
Coquerel  was  there,  and  I  talked  with  him  much  at  large  on  the 
religious  politics  of  France.  He  thinks  well  of  the  prospects  of 
Protestantism,  in  which  I  suppose  he  may  be  right  ;  but  he  counts 
much  on  the  Duchess  of  Orleans,  in  which,  I  doubt  not,  he  is  wrong. 
Her  position  will  prevent  her  from  favoring  Protestantism,  even  if 
she  should  continue  to  be  a  Protestant.  All,  however,  agree  that  the 
religious  principle  makes  progress  in  France,  though  the  external 
signs  of  favorable  change  in  this  respect  are  certainly  very  slight. 

Afterward,  at  the  Duke  de  Brogiie's,  I  introduced  the  same  ques- 
tions. The  party  was  small,  but  suitable  for  the  subject,  and  brilliant 
with  talent,  consisting  of  Duchatel,  Lebrun,  Duvergier,  Guizot,  Re- 
niusat,  Viel-Castel,  Doudan,  Villemain,  and  one  or  two  ladies,  besides 
the  Duchess.  It  was  like  a  rocket  thrown  on  straw.  They  all  spoke 
at  once,  and  seemed  all  to  have  different  opinions.  At  last  Guizot 
and  Mad.  de  Broglie  were  heard,  and  they  both  thought  religion  is 
making  progress  in  France,  and  that  it  will  continue  to  do  so.  Sev- 
eral of  those  present  were  Protestants,  and  expressed  their  feelings 
very  warmly,  to  which  Villemain  and,  after  him,  Guizot  spoke  with 
great  indignation  of  the  present  condition  of  the  stage  and  of  elegant 
literature.     It  was  very  interesting 

February  10.  —  The  Duke  de  Broglie  said  last  night  that  there 
would  be  a  good  debate  to-day  in  the  Peers,  on  the  law  for  Hos- 
pitals for  the  Insane,  and  that  he  would  have  good  seats  for  us 
to  hear  it.     So  we  went.     The  room  is  well  arranged  for  business 

and  discussion The  Duke  came  to  us  and  explained  what  was 

going  on.  The  forms  are  good,  except  that  of  speaking  from  the 
Tribune,  which,  however,  is  not  insisted  upon  here  as  pedantically  as 
it  is  in  the  other  house,  though  still  the  more  formal  speeches  are 

made  from  it We  heard,  successively,  Montalivet,  the  Minister 

of  the  Interior  ;  the  Due  de  Bassano,  so  famous  nnder  Bonaparte, 
and  now  a  most  venerable,  white-headed  old  gentleman  ;  La  Place, 
son  of  the  mathematician  ;  Barthelemy  ;  Pelet  de  la  Lozere  ;  Gasparin ; 
Villemain ;  Tascher  de  la  Pagerie,  connected  by  blood  with  the  Bona- 
partes,  and  representing  their  interests  ;  Girod  de  I'Ain  ;  Montalem- 
bert,  the  fanatic  and  Carlist,  etc.  The  discussion  was  carried  on  in 
the  most  business-like  manner,  and  to  practical  purpose.  Indeed, 
for  these  great  ends  the  House  of  Peers  is  admirably  constituted, 


132  *  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1338. 

being  filled  with  men,  most  of  whom  have  distinguished  themselves 
by  business  talent  among  the  deputies  ;  but,  unhappily,  all  being 
nominated  by  the  King,  and  holding  their  places  only  for  life,  with  a 
miserable  pension,  they  enjoy,  as  a  body,  not  the  smallest  political 
influence  in  the  state.  This  is,  in  truth,  a  great  misfortune,  because 
many  of  the  men,  thus  neutralized  by  their  advancement,  are  such  as 
ought  to  exercise  in  some  way  or  other  the  power  of  the  state.  In- 
deed, this  state  of  things  is  so  obvious  that  such  men  as  Thiers  and 
Guizot  cannot  be  induced  to  enter  the  Chamber  of  Peers. 

February  13.  —  I  went  to-day  to  see  Chateaubriand.  He  lives  in 
the  extreme  outskirts  of  the  city,  far  beyond  St.  Gene\ieve,  in  a  sort 
of  savage  retirement,  receiving  few  persons,  and  coming  into  no  soci- 
ety. He  has  set  up  there  a  sort  of  hosjJice,  where  he  suj^ports  twelve 
poor  men  and  twelve  poor  women,  in  extreme  old  age  ;  not,  indeed, 
out  of  his  own  means,  but  by  an  annual  contribution  which  he  levies 
every  year,  far  and  wide,  even  in  the  palace  of  the  abominated  Louis 
Philippe.  He  received  me  kindly  in  his  study,  which  did  not  seem 
very  comfortable,  but  which  contained  a  superb  copy  of  a  Holy  Fam- 
ily, by  Mignard,  given  to  him  by  the  late  Duchess  de  Duras,  at  whose 
delightful  hotel  I  used  to  see  him,  in  1818  and  1819.*  He  is  much 
altered  since  that  time.  The  "v^Tinkles  are  sunk  deep  into  his  face, 
and  his  features  are  grown  very  hard  ;  but  he  has  the  same  striking 
and  somewhat  theatrical  air  he  always  had,  and  which  is  quite  well 
expressed  in  the  common  engraved  portraits.  He  talked  of  Mad.  de 
Duras  with  feeling,  or  the  affectation  of  it,  and  of  the  days  of  Louis 
XYIII.  with  a  little  bitterness,  and  very  dogmatically,  not  concealing 
the  opinion  that  if  his  judgment  had  been  more  followed,  things 
would  not  now  have  been  where  they  are.  His  work  on  the  Congress 
of  Verona,  now  in  the  press,  will,  he  says,  explain  many  things  the 
world  has  not  known  before  ;  and,  from  all  I  have  heard,  I  am  dis- 
posed to  think  it  will  create  some  sensation  when  it  appears,  and 
probably  offend  —  as  he  has  often  before  offended  —  some  of  his  best 
friends.  Indeed,  in  all  respects,  save  his  looks,  he  seemed  to  me  little 
altered.  He  asked  me,  when  I  came  away,  to  visit  him  occasion- 
ally, but  made  many  grimaces  about  it,  and  said  he  was  a  poor  her- 
mit and  pilgrim,  who  had  nothing  to  offer  to  a  stranger  used  to  the 
^-=1  grands  salons  of  Paris.     I  am  something  of  his  mind,  and  shall  hardly 

go  again. 

On  my  way  home  I  stopped  at  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice  to  see 
one  of  the  priests  who  is  a  professor  there.     I  was  surprised  at  the 

*  See  Vol.  I.  pp.  137,  etc.,  and  254,  255. 


M.  46.]  VAKTOUS  SOCIETY.  133 

extent  of  the  establishment,  and  the  number  of  ^Ihes,  in  their  gloomy 
dresses  and  with  their  fornLal  air,  who  were  walking  about  in  the 
vast  corridors.  It  was,  however,  all  monkish,  as  much  as  if  it  had 
been  in  Austria  or  Eome  ;  and  I  could  not  but  feel  that  it  was  all  out 
of  joint  with  the  spirit  of  the  times,  in  France  at  least.  I  recollected 
our  conversation  at  de  Broglie's  the  other  evening,  and  could  not  but 
think,  if  the  Catholic  religion  ref[uires  for  its  support  such  establish- 
ments as  this,  it  can  hardly  be  suited  to  France,  or  likely  to  make 
progress  there. 

February  14.  —  Divided  a  long  evening  between  Thierry  and  the 
de  Broglies.  Poor  Thierry  was  in  bed,  suffering  more  than  usual ; 
but  two  or  three  friends  were  with  him,  and  he  showed  how  com- 
pletely his  spirits  and  animation  are  indomitable.  At  de  Broglie's 
all  was  as  brilliant  as  luxury,  rank,  and  talent  could  make  it.  The 
contrast  was  striking,  and  not  without  its  obvious  meaning  ;  yet  both 
were  interesting,  and  I  enjoyed  both. 

February  15.  —  A  formal,  luxurious,  splendid  dinner  at  Ternaux's, 
where  were  Jaubert,  the  eloquent  and  witty  Doctrinaire  leader  ;  Jouf- 
froy,  the  popular,  liberal  professor  ;  Jomard,  whose  modesty  and  learn- 
ing I  admire  more  the  oftener  I  see  him  ;  Santarem,  a  Portuguese 
nobleman,  of  the  rare  scholarship  which  is  sometimes,  though  very 
seldom,  found  in  his  nation  ;  and  several  others.  I  talked  much  with 
Santarem,  and  wish  I  were  likely  to  see  more  of  him,  for  he  is  a  very 
extraordinary  person  ;  but  he  leaves  Paris  in  a  few  days. 

February  17. — We  spent  the  evening  at  the  Delesserts',  where  we 
met  Eynard,  the  mover  of  the  Greek  affairs,  and  his  winning  wife  ; 
Ternaux  and  his  wife  ;  Guizot ;  and  a  few  more.  It  is  a  magnificent 
establishment,  in  the  style  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  the  conservatory,  mak- 
ing a  sort  of  additional  saloon,  is,  when  lighted  up  in  the  evening, 
extremely  beautiful.  About  half  a  dozen  of  the  pictures,  too,  are  of 
high  merit ;  and  the  grave,  dignified  old  Baron  seems  in  good  keep- 
ing with  the  whole.  They  are,  too,  all  good,  kind,  and  true  people, 
and  you  feel  that  you  are  well  when  you  are  there  ;  a  feeling  by  no 
means  universal  in  the  brilliant  saloons  of  Paris. 

February  18.  —  I  went  to  Thiers'  to-night  before  ten  o'clock,  intend- 
ing to  stay  only  half  an  hour,  and  then  make  some  other  visits  ;  but  I 
was  tempted  by  the  brilliancy  of  the  ex-minister's  conversation,  and 
remained  till  after  midnight.  There  were  only  three  or  four  persons 
present ;  but  among  them  was  General  Bugeaud,  who  lately  com- 
manded in  Africa,  and  Jusuf,  in  his  Arab  costume,  who  has  made 
such  a  figure  lately  by  a  sort  of  romantic  atrocities  on  the  Algerine 


134  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1838. 

frontier,  —  one  of  the  most  picturesque  creatures  I  ever  looked  upon. 
The  political  embarrassments  of  the  Ministry,  involving  the  African 
affairs,  and  leading  Thiers  to  the  hope  of  returning  to  power,  gave 
piquancy  to  some  parts  of  the  conversation.  Thiers  did  not  conceal 
his  full  consciousness  of  his  position,  and  Bugeaud  did  not  conceal 
his  desire  to  have  certain  things  done  in  Africa  if  Thiers  should  come 
in  Minister,  while  between  the  two  Jusuf  cut  up  and  down  like  a 
true  Arab,  until  at  last  Bugeaud  became  so  vexed  with  him,  that  he 
said  rather  pettishly,  "  If  you  go  on  in  this  way,  Jusuf,  you  will  end 
by  having  your  handsome  head  cut  off."  The  point  was,  whether  the 
occupation  of  Africa  should  be  merely  military  and  desolating,  or 
whether  it  should  be  conciliating  and  agricultural ;  Bugeaud  being 
for  the  first,  and  Jusuf  for  the  last.  Both  showed  great  adroitness, 
but  both  got  angry,  and  so  Thiers  obtained  the  advantage  of  both, 
and,  as  he  always  does,  used  them  both  for  his  own  purposes.  He  was 
at  times  very  brilliant  and  eloquent,  especially  when  showing  the 
effect  of  a  military  desolation  of  Northern  Africa. 

February  19.  —  Mad.  de  Pastoret  had  a  grande  reception  this  even- 
ing, with  the  ancien  regime  about  her.  I  alluded  to  it,  but  she  said  : 
"  No,  we  are  not  in  favor  ;  we  have  our  old  friends  only  about  us." 
At  that  time  there  were  some  of  the  greatest  names  in  French  history 
before  her  ;  Crillon,  Bethune,  and  Montmorency.  I  told  her  I  was 
going  to  Mad.  de  Broglie's,  and  she  spoke  of  her  Avith  great  affection 
and  regard,  but  said  their  different  views  of  religion  and  politics 
kept  them  quite  asunder.  She  said  she  knew  Mad.  de  Stael  well  at 
one  period,  but  I  think  the  same  causes  prevented  her  from  ever  see- 
ing much  more  of  the  mother  than  of  the  daughter. 

February  23.  —  Mrs.  Fry  —  the  famous  Mrs.  Fry  —  has  been  here 
a  few  days,  with  her  husband  and  a  "  friend  Josiah,"  and  has  excited 
some  sensation.  Her  object  is  to  have  something  done  about  the 
French  prisons,  which  are  no  doubt  bad  enough  ;  .  .  .  .  and  though 
she  will,  I  think,  bring  nothing  to  pass,  she  produces  the  same  sort 
of  impression  of  her  goodness  here  that  she  does  everywhere.  We 
were  invited  to  meet  her  this  evening  at  the  de  Broglies'.  There 
were  few  persons  there,  the  Ste.  Aulaires,  Guizot,  Portalis,  Pasquier, 
Villemain,  Eynard  ;    in  short,  the  small  coterie,  with  Barante  and 

two  or  three  others She  is  quite  stout,  very  fair,  with  not  a 

wrinkle  in  her  placid  countenance,  and  a  full,  rich  blue  eye,  beam- 
ing with  goodness.  She  expressed  her  opinions  without  reserve,  and, 
whether  those  about  her  agreed  with  her  or  not,  nobody  opposed  her. 
She  had  the  air  of  feeling  that  she  was  charged  with  a  mission,  but 


JE.46.]  CHILDREN'S  BALL.  135 

was  not  ofTensive  or  obtrusive  ;  liked  to  listen,  and  was  pleased  with 
Avbat  she  heard 

]\Iad.  de  Broglie  sympathized  fully  with  her  religious  feelings,  and 
spoke  of  her  to  me  after  she  was  gone,  with  deep  sensibility,  and  a 
sort  of  despair  of  seeing  her  spirit  prevail  in  France.  But  Portalis, 
the  President  of  the  great  Court  of  Ajipeals,  and  Guizot,  the  practical 
politician,  comprehended  her,  as  I  thought,  very  little 

Fehruary  24.  —  The  Queen  gave  a  bull  to-night  to  the  children  of 
those  who  have  the  entree,  to  which  no  other  persons  but  their  parents 
were  admitted  ;  and  I  cannot  help  thinking  it  was  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  sights  that  can  be  seen  in  the  world.  I  am  sure  I  never 
saw  anything  of  the  kind  so  beautiful.  It  began  early,  about  eight 
o'clock,  and  by  nine  o'clock  full  five  hundred  beautifully  dressed 
children,  between  four  and  sixteen  years  old,  as  briglit  and  happy  as 
such  a  scene  would  naturally  make  them,  with  about  a  thousand 
other  persons,  including  the  whole  Court  and  the  ministers,  were  col- 
lected in  those  magnificent  halls,  where  there  was  abundance  of  room 
for  everybody  to  see  and  enjoy  the  fairy -like  show.  There  was  no 
etiquette.  The  King,  the  Queen,  and  the  rest  of  the  royal  family, 
including  the  very  graceful  Duchess  of  Orleans,  moved  about  the 
rooms  without  ceremony  ;  and  the  children,  often  ignorant  who  ad- 
dressed them,  talked  to  them  with  the  simplicity  and  directness  of 
their  years.  One  little  girl  of  five  years  old  complained  to  the  King 
that  her  shoes  pinched  her  dreadfully,  and  asked  him  what  she  should 
do  ;  and  another  said  she  had  not  had  a  good  time,  for  her  partners 

had  been  disagreeable Yet  even  in  so  bright  a  scene,  care  and 

business  could  intrude.  I  saw  the  King  once  talk  half  an  hour  with 
two  of  his  ministers,  with  as  anxious  a  look  as  I  ever  beheld.  This, 
however,  was  an  exception  to  the  tone  of  the  evening,  which  was  as 
light-hearted  as  possible.  At  about  eleven  the  supper-rooms  were 
opened,  and  the  children  were  all  seated  ;  while  the  Queen  and  the 
Court  walked  round  and  served  them,  and  saw  that  they  were  j^leas- 
antly  and  comfortably  attended  to  in  all  respects 

Fehruary  26.  —  There  is  great  trouble  in  the  government,  and  it 
seems  to  be  doubtful  whether  the  Ministry  can  keep  their  places.  In 
order  to  see  the  signs  of  the  times  a  little  more  nearly  and  accurately, 
I  went  this  evening  to  the  three  houses  where  they  can  be  best  con- 
sidered, and  found  the  experiment  amusing.  First,  at  Count  Mole's, 
the  Hotel  des  Aff'aires  Etrangeres,  I  found  the  magnificent  ofiicial 
salons  almost  deserted.  Whenever  I  have  been  there  before,  I  have 
found  crowds  of  deputies  ;  but  to-night,  when  I  asked  Coimt  d'Ap- 


136  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1838. 

pony  if  their  number  was  not  uncommonly  small,  lie  said  that  in  the 
course  of  the  half-hour  he  had  been  there  he  had  seen  but  four  ar- 
rive ;  and  the  wary,  smooth  politician  did  not  conceal  the  pleasure  it 
gave  him. 

Count  Mole  looked  more  sallow  than  ever,  was  awkward  and  em- 
barrassed, and  talked  to  me  some  time,  which  he  has  not  done  before 
since  the  first  evening'  I  was  there,  and  which  he  did  to-ni^ht  onlv 
because  I  am  a  perfectly  neutral  person,  to  whom  his  conversation 
could  not  be  misinterpreted  to  mean  anything  whatsoever.  The  for- 
eign ministers  were  chiefly  there,  watching  carefully,  like  spies,  and 
some  of  them  showing  that  they  were  amused,  more  than  I  thought 
it  quite  polite  they  should. 

After  staying  till  it  was  plain  the  company  would  not  increase,  I 
drove  to  Guizot's.  The  first  thing  I  noticed  was,  that  all  access  was 
thronged.  It  was  some  time  before  I  could  draw  up  to  the  door  and 
be  set  do\ATi,  and  when  I  got  in  I  could  hardly  see  who  was  there  for 
the  crowd.  Barante  was  much  excited.  His  place  as  Ambassador  at 
St.  Petersburg  is  safe  with  Mole,  of  course,  but  he  would  like  to  have 
Guizot  come  in,  and  especially  de  Broglie,  and  he  would  like,  too, 
to  come  in  himself,  which  is  just  within  the  range  of  possibilities. 
Lamartine  was  more  moved  than  usual,  but  he  overrates  his  political 
consecpience  ;  though,  being  the  real  leader  of  a  few  in  the  Chamber, 
he  has  certainly  some  power,  now  that  the  three  or  four  parties  in  the 
Chamber  are  so  evenly  balanced.  Jaubert,  Duchatel,  Duvergier,  and 
the  rest  of  the  clique  were  very  active ;  and  though  Guizot  was  as  dig- 
nified as  ever,  there  was  a  rigidity  in  his  features  that  showed  how 
much  he  was  excited.  He  was  frequently  called  aside,  and  whispered 
to  mysteriously,  as  were  several  others  of  the  leaders.  Among  those 
that  were  the  most  busy  was  the  Due  Decazes,  who  must  feel  his 
position  a  curious  one  on  such  an  occasion,  having  been  so  long  the 
minister  and  favorite  of  Louis  XYIIL,  and  now  playing  a  part  so 
eager,  and  yet  so  inferior.  The  whole  scene  was  striking,  and  was 
a  striking  contrast  to  the  cj[uietness  of  the  Hotel  des  Affaires  Etran- 
geres. 

Just  so  it  was  at  Thiers'.  The  Place  St,  George,  on  which  he  lives, 
was  full  of  carriages,  and  though  I  arrived  late,  the  crowd  was  still 
coming.  The  ex-minister  was  in  excellent  spirits,  and  all  about  him 
seemed  so  too.  Arago,  Marshal  Maison,  Mignet,  Odillon-Barrot,  and 
the  rest  of  the  leaders  of  the  party  were  more  gay  than  the  correspond- 
ing personages  whom  I  had  just  left  at  Guizot's.  Thiers  himself 
talked  with  everybody,  and  seemed  pleased  with  everybody,  even. 


^.46.]  BARON  DELESSERT.  137 

witli  Count  Montalenibert,  and  some  of  the  Carlists,  who  came  there 
I  hardly  know  how.  He  bustled  about,  perhaps,  a  little  too  much 
for  his  dignity  ;  but  I  thmk  he  knew  his  men  and  his  vocation  per- 
fectly, and  when  I  came  away,  between  twelve  and  one  o'clock,  he 
seemed  quite  unwearied. 

February  28.  —  I  spent  the  greater  part  of  the  evening  at  Thierry's 
very  agreeably.  He  takes  a  great  interest  in  the  movement  of  the 
French  in  Canada.  "  Ces  noms  Frangais,"  he  said  to-night,  "  me  vont 
au  cceur  ! "  He  is  unlike  his  countrymen  in  many  respects,  but  this 
is  genuinely  and  completely  French.  He  cannot  endure  the  disgrace 
and  defeat  of  men  who  bear  such  names. 

The  last  of  the  evening  I  went  to  Lamartine's,  but  the  atmosphere 
was  altogether  political.  It  is  a  pity.  He  is  not  a  great  poet,  cer- 
tainly, but  he  ought  not  to  be  absurd  enough  to  fancy  himself  a  poli- 
tician. 

March  3.  —  ....  I  dined  to-day  at  Baron  Delessert's.  The  party 
was  not  large,  but  among  them  was  De  Metz,  the  Judge  of  their 
Upper  Court,  who  has  been  lately  to  the  United  States,  at  his  own 
expense,  merely  to  see  our  prisons,  and  printed  a  book  about  them 
since  his  return  ;  Guizot ;  Remusat ;  and  two  or  three  other  depu- 
ties. 

Mad.  Francois  Delessert  pleases  me  more  the  more  I  see  of  her,  and 
the  old  Baron,  with  his  uprightness,  his  solid  wealth,  his  science  and 
politics,  is  quite  an  admirable  person.  He  reminds  me  of  "  the  old 
courtier  of  the  queen,  and  the  queen's  old  courtier,"  *  so  completely 
has  he  the  air  of  belonging  to  the  best  of  the  old  times. 

But  I  talked  chiefly  to-day  with  De  Metz,  who  is  full  of  intelli- 
gence and  talent,  and  one  of  those  able,  sound,  conscientious  magis- 
trates of  whom  any  country  may  be  proud.  Like  Tocqueville,  Julius, 
and  Crawfurd,  he  returns  having  changed  his  opinion  about  solitary 
confinement,  and  now  thinks  the  Philadelphia  system  preferable  to 
the  Auburn. 

Between  nine  and  ten  I  took  Guizot  in  my  carriage  to  Mad.  de 
Broglie's,  where  we  had,  en  tres  'petit  comite\  a  very  gay  and  brilliant 
talk,  partly  political  and  partly  literary,  in  which  the  generally  de- 
graded tone  of  French  letters  at  the  present  time  was  not  spared. 

On  my  way  home  I  stopped  at  the  Duchess  de  Rauzan's,  where 
there  were  heaps  of  Carlists,  the  Bethunes,  the  Crillons,  the  Cir- 
courts.  Count  Bastard,  ....  and  among  the  rest  Jusuf,  with  his 
picturesque  costume,  and  that  sort  of  spare  Arab  beauty  which  Scott 

*  From  a  song  given  in  "  Percy  Rehques  "  as  from  the  Pepys  collection. 


138  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

has  given  to  Saladin  in  the  Crusaders Berryer  was  there,  and 

hrilliant. 

March  4.  —  ....  I  was  tired  in  the  evening,  hut  went  to  Thiers', 
where,  with  a  few  other  distinguished  persons,  chiefly  politicians,  I 
met  Cousin,  Villemain,  and  Mignet,  and  had  a  very  agreeable  talk. 
Cousin,  however,  I  like  as  little  as  any  man  of  letters  I  have  seen. 
He  has  a  falsetto,  and  a  pretension  with  his  vanity,  that  takes  away 
much  of  the  pleasure  his  talent  and  earnestness  would  give 

March  6.  —  We  went  this  morning  with  Count  Circourt,  and  passed 
some  hours  in  looking  over  the  materials,  and,  as  far  as  finished,  the 
extraordmary  work  of  Count  Bastard,  on  the  Arts  of  Design,  from 
the  fourth  to  the  sixteenth  century  ;  the  most  splendid  work  of  the 
kind  that  was  ever  issued  from  the  press 

He  has  succeeded,  thus  far,  admirably.  But  the  amount  of  labor  and 
money  it  has  cost  him  is  truly  enormous.  He  has  been  obliged  to 
have  his  paper  made  of  linen  cambric,  in  order  that  it  might  not  in- 
jure the  colors  laid  on  it ;  he  has  been  obliged  to  have  all  his  colors 
specially  made  to  suit  his  purpose,  and  he  has  been  obliged  to  employ 
miniature  painters  of  high  merit  to  execute  the  designs,  after  the  slight 
engraved  outline  has  been  struck  off.  In  this  way  his  own  private 
fortune,  which  was  large,  was  soon  absorbed  ;  Louis  XVIII.  and 
Charles  X.  gave  him  two  million  six  hundred  thousand  francs  ;  and 
when  Thiers  was  Minister  he  took  up  the  project  with  great  zeal,  and 
appropriated  half  a  million  a  year  for  five  years  to  it.  Nine  numbers 
are  already  prepared,  and  the  whole  number  is  to  be  forty-two  ;  and 

each  contams  five  or  six  plates I  must  needs  say,  I  never 

thought  art  could  go  so  far.  The  imitation  was  absolute,  and  when 
an  old  Missal  was  put  beside  its  copy,  it  seemed  hardly  j^ossible  to 
distinguish.*  .... 

March  9.  —  ....  We  made  a  hard  forenoon's  work  of  it  this 
morning,  in  the  Annual  Exhibition  of  living  artists  ;  in  the  new  col- 
lection of  pictures  the  King  has  just  caused  to  be  brought  from  Sjwn ; 
and  in  the  collection  of  original  dra\vings  by  the  old  masters 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  Mad.  Mojon's,  where,  besides  such  persons 
as  I  commonly  have  met  there,  I  found  Tommaseo,  the  author  of  the 
*'  Duca  d'Atene."  He  is  quite  young  still,  and  seemed  full  of  feeling 
and  talent.  I  talked  with  him  a  good  deal,  and,  among  other  things, 
he  told  me  he  was  employed  on  a  work  on  the  Philosophy  of  History. 

*  This  great  undertaking  remained  incomplete.  Twenty  numbers  were  pub- 
lished, at  the  price  of  1,800  francs  each ;  but  in  the  later  ones  the  work  Avas 
negligent,  and,  government  aid  being  withdrawn,  the  enterprise  dropped. 


iE.  46.]  LEAVING  PARIS.  139 

I  should  not  have  thought  his  talent  lay  that  way,  for  the  •'  Duca 
d'Atene "  is  a  picturesque  book,  showing  history  through  the  imagi- 
nation ;  but  we  shall  see.* 

March  10.  —  I  made  some  visits  of  ceremony  to  take  leave,  and  in 
the  evening  went  to  Mad.  de  Pastoret's,  whom  I  found  almost  alone, 
and  had  some  very  agreeable  talk  with  her.  She  is  the  only  true  rep- 
resentative I  know  of  the  old  monarchy,  and  would  be  a  most  respect- 
able one  of  any  period  of  any  nation's  history 

Our  friends  the  Arconatis  are  come  to  Paris,  and  it  gave  us  great 
pleasure  to-day  to  have  a  visit  from  them  and  Count  Arrivabene. 
]Mad.  Arconati  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  distinguished  women  I 
have  known,  distinguished  alike  for  her  talent,  and  for  her  delightful, 
gentle,  lady-like  qualities  of  all  kinds. 

March  13.  —  To-day  we  made  many  visits,  and  did  a  great  deal  of 
packing.  We  received,  too,  several  visits,  among  the  rest  a  long  one 
from  the  Circourts,  two  of  the  most  gifted  and  admirable  persons  we 
have  known  during  our  absence 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  Thiers'  and  Guizot's,  that  I  might  finish 
my  impressions  of  French  society  by  its  appearance  in  the  two  salons 
in  Paris  whose  political  consequence  is  the  most  grave,  whose  avenir, 
as  the  French  call  it,  is  the  most  brilliant.  Both  the  great  statesmen 
parted  from  me  with  much  kindness  of  manner,  and  multitudinous 
expressions  of  good-will,  a  little  of  it  French,  but  some  of  it  serious 
and  certain,  especially  in  Guizot's  case. 

I  went,  too,  for  a  moment  to  the  de  Broglies'.  Mad.  de  Broglie 
was  not  at  home,  but  had  left  word  for  us  to  come  to  see  her  at  her 
daughter's 

March  14.  —  More  bidding  good  by  ;  sad  work !     The  saddest  was 

with  the  de  Broglies We  stayed,  of  course,  only  a  short  time, 

and  when  we  came  away.  Mad.  de  Broglie  followed  us  to  the  head  of 
the  stairs,  and  saying  to  me,  "  Nous  sommes  amis  depuis  vingt  ans," 
embraced  me  after  the  French  fashion,  adding,  "  Si  je  ne  vous  revois 
pas  dans  ce  monde,  je  vous  reverrai  en  ciel."  f 

As  in  relation  to  other  cities,  Mr.  Ticknor  on  leaving  Paris 

*  Tommaseo  was  associated  with  Manin  in  the  revolution  at  Venice,  in  1848. 

t  Mad.  de  Broglie  died  suddenly  in  September  following,  of  brain  fever.  M. 
Guizot,  when  mentioning  her  death,  calls  her  "I'une  des  plus  nobles,  des  plug 
rares,  et  des  plus  charmantes  creatures  que  j'ai  vu  apparaitre  eh  ce  monde,  et  de 
qui  je  dirai  ce  que  Saint  Simon  dit  du  Due  de  Bonrgogne,  en  deplorant  sa  perte, 
'  Plaise  a  la  misericorde  de  Dieu  que  je  la  voie  eternellement,  oil  sa  bonte  sans 
doute  I'a  mise.' "    Memoires,  etc.,  de  mon  Temps,  Vol.  IV.  p.  259. 


r 


140  LIFE   OP   GEORGE   TICKNOR.  [1S38. 

devoted  several  pages  of  his  Journal  to  reniarks  on  the  j)ublic 
institutions,  and  the  changes  he  observed  since  his  last  visit 
there.  We  give  one  or  two  passages.  Speaking  of  the  theatres, 
he  says  :  —  i 

The  tone  is  decidedly  lower,  more  immoral,  worse  than  it  was 
twenty  years  ago  ;  and  when  it  is  recollected  how  much  influence 
the  drama  exercises  in  France  on  public  opinion,  it  becomes  an  im- 
portant fact  in  regard  to  the  moral  state  of  the  capital  and  country. 
The  old  French  drama,  and  especially  the  comedy,  from  Moliere's 
time  downwards,  contained  often  gross  and  indelicate  phrases  and 
allusions,  but  the  tone  of  the  pieces,  as  a  whole,  was  generally  re- 
spectable. The  recent  theatre  reverses  all  this.  It  contains  hardly 
any  indecorous  phrases  or  allusions,  but  its  whole  tone  is  highly  im- 
moral. I  have  not  yet  seen  one  ^^iece  that  is  to  be  considered  an 
exception  to  tliis  remark.  The  popular  literature  of  the  time,  too, 
is  in  the  same  tone.  Victor  Hugo,  Balzac,  the  shameless  woman 
who  dresses  like  a  man  and  calls  herself  George  Sand,  Paul  de  Kock, 
and  I  know  not  how  many  more,  belong  to  this  category,  and  are 
daily  working  mischief  throughout  those  portions  of  society  to  whom 
they  address  themselves.  How  is  this  to  be  explained  ?  Is  it  that 
the  middling  class  of  society,  that  fills  the  smaller  theatres  and  reads 
the  romances  of  the  popular  writers,  is  growing  corrupt ;  that  the 
progress  of  wealth,  and  even  of  education,  has  opened  doors  to  vice 

as  well  as  to  improvement  ?     I  fear  so At  any  rate,  I  know 

nothing  that  more  truly  deserves  the  reproach  of  being  immoral  and 
demoralizing  than  the  theatres  of  Paris,  and  the  popular  Hterature  of 
the  day.     It  is  all  much  worse  than  it  was  twenty  years  ago. 

Society,  so  far  as  it  has  changed  at  all,  has  changed  by  becoming 
more  extensive,  and  more  political  in  its  tone.  The  number  of  those 
who  go  into  the  higher  salons  is  much  increased,  and  especially  in 
those  that  are  purely  political,  like  Mole's,  Guizot's,  Thiers',  etc.,  and 
the  numbers  that  resort  to  each  fluctuate  disgracefully,  exactly  accord- 
ing to  the  political  position  of  the  host.  It  was  quite  ridiculous  to 
see  how  this  principle  operated  once  or  twice  this  winter,  when  the 
Ministry  were  supposed  to  stand  insecurely.  But  in  all  the  salons  it 
is  perceptible.  Even  the  Tuileries  is  not  an  exception.  Party  lines 
decide  who  shall  and  who  shall  not  go  there.  Carlists,  of  course, 
are  never  seen.  Deputies  in  citizens'  dresses  and  black  coats  go  only 
to  show  that  they  are  in  the  opposition  ;  and  many  a  Bonapartist 
cannot  or  will  not  be  seen  there,  though  the  King  himself  treats 


M.  46.]  VIEW   OF   FRENX'H  SOCIETY.  141 

them  kiiully  enough  as  a  party,  and  even  permits  Mad.  Murat  to  live 
in  Paris  for  the  prosecution  of  claims  against  the  government,  and 
lately  received  Prince  IMusignano  with  a  sort  of  distinction  which  he 
[MusignanoJ  boasted  of  more  than  once  to  me 

I  went  to  about  twenty,  or,  occasionally,  five-and-twenty  of  the 
principal  salons,  and  they  were  all  infected  with  the  different  shades 
of  the  political  parties  that  now  divide  France  ;  a  state  of  things 
much  worse  for  society,  as  well  as  for  the  practical  administration 
of  government,  than  if  there  were  but  two  great  divisions  running 

through   the  whole Now   here   are  five   different   sets,   and 

though  it  w^as  possible  to  escape  from  them  all,  and  go  to  the  lit- 
erary and  philosophical  salons  of  Lamartine,  De  Gerando,  Jomard, 
Jouy,  and  some  others,  yet  it  is  a  chance  if  you  would  not,  after  all, 
even  there,  fall  into  the  midst  of  political  disputes  between  some  of 
those  who,  even  on  this  neutral  ground,  could  not  help  the  ascend- 
ancy of  the  partisanship  that  governs  them  everywhere  else. 

The  Diplomacy  —  except  at  Lord  Granville's,  which  was  always 
flooded  with  English,  and  at  General  Cass's,  which  w^as  nothing  but 

stupid  —  had  no   open   salons  this   winter The  effect  of  the 

whole  of  this  is,  that  the  society  of  Paris  is  less  elegant  than  it  used 
to  be.  Its  numbers  are  greater  and  its  tone  lower,  and  politics  are 
heard  everywhere  above  everything  else 

Everything  in  France,  its  government,  its  society,  its  arts,  the 
modes  of  life,  literature,  and  the  morals  and  religion  of  the  country, 
are  in  a  transition  state.  Nothing  is  settled  there.  Nothing,  I  think, 
is  likely  to  be  in  our  time. 

To  William  H.  Prescott,  Boston. 

Paris,  February  20,  1838. 

....  I  have  no  time  to  WTite  you,  as  I  should  be  glad  to,  about 
ourselves.  We  have  made  a  genuine  Parisian  winter  of  it,  and  are 
not  at  all  sorry  that  it  is  drawing  to  a  close.  For  two  months  I  have 
been  so  much  in  society  that  it  has,  at  last,  fairly  wearied  me,  and  I 
am  obliged  to  stop  a  little.  Anna,  who  likes  the  salons  less  than  I 
do,  goes  out  less  ;  but  enough  to  see  all  the  forms  in  which,  from  the 
politics  or  the  taste  of  the  people,  they  appear 

One  thing  strikes  me  in  all  these  places.  I  find  no  English. 
Though  there  are  thirty  thousand  now  in  Paris,  they  can  hardly  get 
any  foothold  in  French  society,  and  it  is  only  when  you  are  at  a  great 
ball  —  at  Court  or  elsewhere  —  that  you  meet  them.     These  balls  are 


142  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

separate  things,  entirely,  from  the  proper  French  society.  We  have 
been  to  few  of  them,  and  found  them  very  splendid,  very  crowded, 
and  very  tiresome  ;  so  much  of  the  last  that  we  were  guilty,  only 
last  night,  of  neglecting  an  invitation  to  the  palace,  where  we  should 
have  met  above  three  thousand  people  !  At  the  Austrian  Ambassa- 
dor's, a  little  while  ago,  we  met  two  thousand.  But  though  such 
crowds  go,  and  though  the  balls  at  the  palace  are  more  splendid  than, 
anything  of  the  sort  I  have  seen  in  Europe,  I  have  never  yet  found 
a  single  person  who  would  say  they  were  agreeable.  So  perverse  is 
fashion,  and  so  severe  in  its  sway. 

One  more  place  I  must  add,  separate  from  all  the  rest ;  the  neat 
and  quiet  salon  of  Thierry,  the  historian  of  the  Norman  Conquest, 
long  since  totally  blind,  and,  from  a  ten-years'  paralysis  of  his  lower 
limbs,  incapable  of  motion,  but  with  his  faculties  as  active  and  his 
habits  of  labor  as  efficient  as  they  ever  were.  He  is  now  the  person 
relied  on  by  the  government  as  head  of  a  commission  to  collect  all 
manuscripts  relating  to  the  history  of  the  cities  and  of  the  tiers  etat 
in  France  ;  besides  which  he  is  writing,  himself,  a  history  of  the 
Merovingian  dynasty.  I  have  passed  several  most  agreeable  even- 
ings with  him,  —  one  last  week,  when  he  was  so  ill  as  to  be  in  bed, 
but  still  directing  two  or  three  young  men  about  the  great  work 
of  collecting  the  manuscripts.  He  is  a  wonderful  man,  and  his  let- 
ters on  French  history,  and  other  small  works  published  within  ten 
years,  give  no  token  of  his  infirmities,  over  which  his  spirit  seems 
completely  to  triumph. 

As  the  time  draws  near  for  leaving  this  exciting,  but  wearing  state 
of  society,  we  feel  more  and  more  impatient  to  get  -home,  I  hope  we 
shall  be  able  to  embark  before  midsummer,  so  as  to  get  a  good  pas- 
sage, and  see  you  all  the  sooner.     Love  to  all.     We  are  all  quite  well ; 

but  I  am  grievously  pushed  for  time. 

G.  T. 

To  William  H.  Prescott,  Boston. 

Paris,  IMarch  5,  1838. 
My  dear  William,  —  I  send  you  a  single  line  by  this  packet,  to 
let  you  know  that  three  days  ago  I  received  from  Bentley  the  six 
copies  of  your  "Ferdinand  and  Isabella."  One  I  sent  instantly  to 
Julius,*  by  Treuttel  and  Wlirtz,  his  booksellers  here,  as  he  desired  ; 
one  to  Von  Kaumer  by  a  similar  conveyance,  with  a  request  to  him 

*  Dr.  Julius,  of  Hamburg,  a  scholar  and  philanthropist,  had  been  in  the 
United  States  in  1834-35. 


iE.  46.]  "FERDINAND  AND  ISABELLA."  143 

to  review  it ;  one  to  Guizot,  whose  acknowledgment  I  received  the 
same  evening,  at  de  Broglie's,  with  much  admiration  of  a  few  pages 
he  had  read,  and  followed  by  a  note  this  morning,  which  I  will 
keep  for  you  ;  one  to  Count  Circourt,  who  will  write  a  review  of  it, 
and  of  whom  Thierry  said  to  me  the  other  night,  "  If  Circourt  would 
but  choose  some  obscure  portion  of  history,  between  a.  d.  500  and 
1600,  and  write  upon  it,  he  would  leave  us  all  behind";  one  to 
Fauriel,  the  very  best  scholar  in  Spanish  literature  and  Spanish  his- 
tory alive,  as  I  believe,  and  one  of  the  ablest  men,  as  a  general  scholar, 
I  know  of  anywhere,  whom  I  have  also  asked  to  notice  it,  or  cause 
it  to  be  noticed  under  his  superintendence  ;  and  the  other  copy,  keep- 
ing for  myself,  I  have  lent  to  Walsh.  Moreover,  in  a  few  days  I 
expect  to  have  Shattuck's  American  copy,  ....  for  a  gentleman 
named  Doudan,  attached  to  the  household  of  the  Duke  de  Broglie  ;  a 
man  of  first-rate  qualities  of  esjmt,  who  writes  occasionally  most  beau- 
tiful articles  for  the  "  Revue  Frangaise,"  who  promises  me  to  render 

there  an  account  of  your  book 

In  a  fortnight  we  hope  to  be  there  [in  London],  nothing  loath  to  quit 

Paris,  which  fatigues  me  by  its  bad  hours  and  exciting  society 

I  am  impatient  to  get  to  London,  and  still  more  impatient  to  get 
home.     I  am  wearied  of  Europe,  as  I  am  of  Paris. 


144  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 


CHAPTEE    YIII. 

London.  —  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge.  —  Hcdlam.  —  Elizabeth  Barrett.  — 
Lockhart.  —  Jeffreij.  —  Sir  Edmund  Head.  —  Story  of  Canning.  — 
Story  of  the  Duke  of  Sussex.  —  Milraan.  —  Eljjhinstone.  —  Cam- 
bridge.  —  Jiliewell.  —  Sedgwick.  —  Smyth.  —  Journey  North. 

JOURNAL. 

March  19.  — We  had  a  very  good  passage  across  the  Channel 

Notwithstanding  a  little  regret  at  leaving  the  picturesque  old  Con- 
tinent, and  a  good  deal  of  regret  at  leaving  a  few  friends,  and  the 
easy  society  of  the  salons  at  Paris,  I  was  well  pleased  to  set  my  feet 

once  more  on  British  earth A  letter  from  Kenyon  inviting 

us  to  dine  with  him  next  Saturday,  and  one  we  received,  just  as  we 
were  packing  up  in  Paris,  from  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  asking  us  to  pass  a 
w^eek  or  fortnight  at  Milton,  made  us  feel  welcome  on  the  kindred 
soil,  and  reminded  us  anew  how  far-reaching  is  English  hospitality. 

March  20.  —  From  Dover  to  Eochester. ,  English  posting  is  cer- 
tainly very  comfortable.  The  four  fine  horses  we  had,  with  two  neat 
postilions,  going  always  with  a  solidity  that  makes  the  speed  less  per- 
ceptible, contrasted  strongly  wdth  the  ragged  beasts  of  all  kinds  to 
which  we  had  been  for  three  years  accustomed 

London,  March  23.  —  We  had  a  good  mdny  visits  to-day,  .... 
but  the  only  person  that  came,  whom  I  was  curious  to  see  as  a 
stranger,  was  Henry  Nelson  Coleridge.  He  must  still  be  under  forty, 
I  think,  but  his  hair  is  quite  w^hite,  and  the  contrast  this  forms  with 
his  rich  black  eyes,  and  no  less  black  eyebrows  and  w^hiskers,  gives 
him  quite  a  picturesque  and  original  look.  His  manner  is  a  little  shy 
and  embarrassed,  and  the  tones  of  his  voice  are  very  mild  and  concili- 
ating, so  that  the  first  impression  he  makes  is  pleasing.  His  conver- 
sation fully  sustains  this  impression.  He  talks  well  and  agreeably, 
but  not  brilliantly.  What  I  chiefly  asked  him  about,  was  the  publi- 
cation of  his  uncle's  works,  but  the  details  he  had  to  give  me  were  not 
very  curious. 

March  24.  —  I  had  a  long  visit  this  morning  from  Hallam,  whom  I 


^.46.]  MPw    HALLAM.  145 

never  saw  before,  because  he  was  not  in  London,  either  in  1819  or  ^_  ^ 
1835,  when  I  was  here.  It  gratified  lue  very  much.  He  is  such  a  --':>% 
man  as  I  should  have  desired  to  find  him  ;  a  little  sensitive  and  ner- 
vous, perhaps,  but  dignified,  quiet,  and  wishing  to  please.  Before  he 
came,  he  had  taken  pains  to  ascertain  that  there  was  a  vacant  place 
at  the  Athenajum  Club,  where  only  twelve  strangers  are  permitted  at 
a  time,  and  offered  it  to  me  ;  but  though  this  was  quite  an  agreeable 
distinction,  I  declined  it,  since,  being  here  with  my  family,  I  care 
nothing  about  the  club  houses.  But  this  is  good  English  hospitality, 
and  a  fair  specimen  of  it. 

Mr.  Hallani  is,  I  suppose,  about  sixty  years  old,  gray-headed,  hesi- 
tates a  little  in  his  speech,  is  lame,  and  has  a  shy  manner,  which 
makes  him  blush,  frequently,  when  he  expresses  as  decided  an  opinion 
as  his  temperament  constantly  leads  him  to  entertain.  Except  his 
lameness,  he  has  a  fine,  dignified  person,  and  talked  pleasantly,  with 
that  air  of  kindness  which  is  always  so  welcome  to  a  stranger. 

March  25. —  ....  After  we  came  home  [from  church]  Senior 
came  in,*  and  was  as  lively,  spirited,  and  active  as  ever,  and  full  of 
projects  for  our  convenience  and  pleasure.  Rogers  followed  him,  and 
talked  in  his  quiet  way  about  all  sorts  of  things  and  people,'  showing 
sometimes  a  little  sub-acid.  It  has  always  been  said  he  will  leave 
memoirs  behind  him.  I  hope  he  will,  for  who  can  write  anything  of 
the  sort  that  would  be  so  amusing  ? .  .  .  .  Before  he  left  us  Lord  Lans- 

downe  came  in,  and  stayed  above  an  hour He  talked  well. 

He  seems  to  be  something  worried  and  annoyed  by  our  bad  behavior 
on  the  frontiers  of  Canada,  and  spoke  a  little  with  the  air  of  a  minis- 
ter of  state,  when  he  came  upon  this  delicate  subject.  Of  the  condition 
of  France,  politically  considered,  he  spoke  wisely,  and  was  curious  to 
hear  what  I  could  tell  him,  adding  that  he  had  known,  from  1814,  the 
relations  of  the  two  governments,  and  that,  excepting  when  the  Duke 
de  Broglie  was  Premier,  they  had  never  felt,  in  England,  that  they 
could  depend  implicitly  on  the  representations  of  the  French  govern- 
ment ;  an  honorable  testimony  from  one  upright  minister  to  another, 
which  was  creditable  to  both. 

March  26.  —  We  had  visits  this  morning  from  Taylor,  —  Philip 
Van  Artevelde,  —  Southey,  —  who  is  just  come  to  to^\^l  for  a  short 
visit,  —  Dr.  Holland,  and  the  admirable  old  Professor  Smyth,  which 
were  all  as  pleasant  as  morning  visits  well  could  be.  "We  dined  again 
at  Kenyon's,  who  wanted  us  to  meet  a  Dr.  Raymond,  one  of  the  high 
dignitaries  of  the  Church,  attached  to  the  Durham  Cathedral ;  a  person 

*  Nassau  W.  Senior. 
VOL.    II.  7  J 


t 


146  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

whom  I  found  a  little  precise  in  his  manners,  but  more  of  a  scholar  in 
modern  elegant  literature  than  Englishmen  of  his  class  commonly  are, 
and  a  very  well-bred  gentleman.  His  sister  was  there  too,  and  so  was 
a  Miss  Barrett,  M'ho  has  distinguished  herself  by  a  good  poetical  trans- 
lation of  the  "  Prometheus  Vinctus  "  of  ^schylus.*  The  dinner  was 
very  agreeable  ;  indeed,  Kenyon  always  makes  his  house  so,  from  his 
own  qualities 

March  27.  —  A  very  busy  day.  As  soon  as  breakfast  was  over  we 
had  a  long  visit  from  the  delightful  old  Professor  Smyth,  which  was 
followed  by  visits  from  H.  C.  Robinson  and  two  or  three  other  per- 
sons. These  were  not  fairly  over  before  Kenyon  came  to  take  us  to 
the  club  houses,  the  Athenseum,  the  University,  the  Travellers',  and 
the  United  Service  of  the  Army  and  Navy.  These  are  the  four  most 
splendid  of  these  recent  inventions,  growing  out  of  the  increasing  lux- 
ury and  selfishness  of  the  present  state  of  society  in  London.  I  do 
not  know  that  anything  can  be  more  complete.  The  Athenseum  is 
the  most  literary,  and  there  we  found  Hallam,  reading  in  its  very  good 
library,  which  owes  much  to  his  care 

It  was  beautiful  weather,  and  we  took  a  drive  in  Hyde  Park,  where 

we  met  the  Queen  on  horseback She  looked  gay,  but  has  grown 

quite  stout  since  I  saw  her  at  York. 

After  a  walk  in  Kensington  Gardens,  which  was  quite  delightful  in 
this  warm  spring  day,  ....  I  made  a  most  agreeable  Adsit  to  Sydney 
Smith,  who  now  finds  himself  so  well  off, —  thanks  to  the  Whigs  whom 
he  is  abusing  in  his  pamphlets,  —  that  he  has  rented  a  small  house  in 
town,  where  he  spends  a  few  months  while  he  takes  his  turn  as  Canon 
of  St.  Paul's.     He  was  very  kind  and  very  droll  to-day 

March  28.  —  Another  long,  laborious  London  day.  The  morning 
was  given  to  business,  visiting,  and  receiving  visits.  Sydney  Smith 
returned  my  yesterday's  call,  and  talked  for  an  hour  in  the  most  amus- 
ing manner,  at  the  end  of  which  he  said,  taking  up  his  hat,  "  And 
now  I  '11  go  and  pray  for  you  "  ;  for  he  was  going  to  some  service  at 
St.  Paul's, 

We  dined  with  the s,  ....  but  we  did  not  stay  late,  for  we  were 

engaged  at  Lansdowne  House,  where  we  found  a  very  select  party, 
made  in  honor  of  the  Duchess  of  Gloucester,  daughter  of  George  IIL 
....  All  the  Ministry  were  there,  ....  the  Duke  of  Cambridge, 
the  foreign  ministers,  Lord  Jeffrey,  — just  come  to  town, —  Lord  and 
Lady  Holland,  the  last  of  whom  is  rarely  seen  anywhere,  except  at 
home,  etc Lord  Durham  is  a  little,  dark-complexioned,  red- 


*  Mrs.  Bro-svning. 


JE.  46.]  LONDON  SOCIETY.  147 


faced -looking  gentleman,  who  was  not  very  much  sought,  though  his 
position  is  now  so  high  ;  Poulett  Thompson  talked  very  well,  hut 
looked  too  foppish  ;  Lady  Holland  was  very  gracious,  or  intended  to 

be  so  ;  and  Lord  Holland  was  truly  kind  and  agreeahle "We, 

of  course,  were  obliged  to  stay  late,  and  I  was  willing  to  do  so,  for  I 
had  a  great  deal  of  pleasant  talk.  But  though  we  did  not  leave  the 
party  till  nearly  one  o'clock,  several  persons  were  amiounced  as  arriv- 
ing while  we  were  waiting  for  our  carriage. 

March  29.  —  ....  We  were  out  at  Senior's  —  a  mile  beyond 
Hyde  Park  Corner  —  to  breakfast,  by  half  past  ten  o'clock.  Chad- 
wick  was  there,  the  Secretary  of  the  Poor  Laws  Commission,  and  said 
to  know  more  than  any  man  in  England  about  the  great  subjects  of 
pauperism  and  popular  education.  Lord  Shelburne,  too,  was  of  the 
party,  and  two  or  three  other  persons.  The  talk  was  a  good  deal 
political  ill  its  tone,  including  such  subjects  as  Rowland  Hill's  plan 
for  a  post-office  reform,  the  state  of  the  manufacturing  population, 
etc.  Chadwick  seemed  very  acute,  and  I  had  a  long  talk  with  him, 
because  we  brought  him  home  with  us.  From  what  he  said,  and 
from  what  I  have  seen  and  heard  elsewhere,  I  am  persuaded  that 
the  nature,  the  wants,  and  the  means  of  popular  education  are  little 
understood  here,  in  practice  at  least. 

Among  some  other  places  I  went  to  afterwards  was  John  Murray's, 
—  the  publisher's,  —  where  I  fell  in  with  Lockhart,  with  whom  I  have 
exchanged  cards  this  week,  but  whom  I  had  not  seen.  He  is  the  same 
man  he  always  was  and  always  will  be,  with  the  coldest  and  most  dis- 
agreeable manners  I  have  ever  seen.  I  wanted  to  talk  with  him  about 
Prescott's  "  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  and  by  a  sort  of  violence  done  to 
myself,  as  well  as  to  him,  I  did  so.  He  said  he  had  seen  it,  but  had 
heard  no  opinion  about  it.  I  gave  him  one  with  little  ceremony, 
which  I  dare  say  he  thought  was  not  worth  a  button  ;  but  I  did  it  in 
a  sort  of  tone  of  defiance,  to  which  Lockhart's  manners  irresistibly 
impelled  me,  and  which  I  dare  say  was  as  judicious  with  him  as  any 
other  tone,  though  I  am  sure  it  quite  astonished  Murray,  who  looked 
....  as  if  he  did  not  quite  comprehend  what  I  was  saying. 

We  dined  at  Mrs.  Villiers',"^  and  had  a  very  delightful  little  party ; 
.  .  .  .  we  were  only  nine  in  all,  just  Horace  Walpole's  number  for  a 

dinner Lord  Jeffrey  talked  all  the  time,  and  extremely  well. 

He  admires  Mrs.  Lister  very  much  for  her  vivacity,  talent,  and 
beauty,  and  made  himself  as  agreeable  as  he  could  to  her  ;  and  cer- 

*  Mother  of  Lord  Clarendon,  of  Edward  Yilliers,  and  of  Mrs.  —  afterwards 
Lady  Theresa  —  Lister.    See  Vol.  I.  pp.  407,  418. 


148  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 


tainly  Le  was  very  agreeable.  The  superciliousness  he  showed  when 
he  was  in  America,  and  the  quiet  coldness  I  used  to  witness  in  him 
sometimes  in  Edinburgh,  in  1819,  were  not  at  all  perceptible  to-day. 
He  was  very  lively,  and  yet  showed  more  sense  than  wit.  We  talked 
a  good  deal  about  the  late  atrocious  duel  of  Cilley  at  Washington  ; 
about  his  recollections  of  the  United  States,  apropos  of  which  he  gave 
a  very  humorous  account  of  his  own  wedding,  and  of  a  dinner  at 
President  Madison's  ;  about  the  elder  days  of  the  "  Edinburgh  Re- 
view" ;  and  about  the  present  state  of  society  at  Edinburgh,  which  he 
represents  as  much  less  brilliant  than  it  was  when  I  was  there  for- 
merly. 

After  the  ladies  were  gone  we  talked  about  what  is  now  a  much- 
vexed  question,  in  relation  to  Scotland,  —  how  far  the  government  is 
bound  to  provide  religious  instruction  for  the  poor.  Jeffrey  said  he 
had  been  to  see  Lord  Melbourne  about  it,  and  took  a  party  view  of 
the  matter  altoorether,  as  I  thoucrht.  I  maintained  that  the  soil  should 
provide  all  instruction  that  is  necessary  to  preserve  the  order  and 
purity  of  society  for  all  that  live  upon  it ;  and  I  think  I  had  much 
the  best  of  the  argument,  drawn  from  our  New  England  institutions 
and  the  Boston  Ministry  for  the  Poor.  At  any  rate,  I  carried  Lister 
and  Edward  Villiers  with  me  against  Jeffrey,  who  admitted  almost 
everything  but  its  political  expediency  in  Scotland 

March  30.  —  Made  a  long  visit  to  Hallam  this  morning,  whom  I 
found  in  his  study,  —  a  very  comfortable  room  in  the  back  part  of  his 
house,  well  filled  with  books,  some  of  which  were  rare.  He  talked 
well,  and  among  other  things  I  asked  him  about  the  universities, 
knowing  that  his  relations  to  them  are  somewhat  peculiar,  as  he 
was  educated  at  Oxford,  and  sent  his  son  to  Cambridge,  where  he 
much  distinguished  himself  at  Trinity.  His  replies  were  such  as 
I  anticipated,  very  cold  as  far  as  concerns  Oxford,  on  which  he  has 
thus  decidedly  turned  his  back,  but  less  favorable  to  either  than  I 
supposed  they  would  be.  But  he  is  a  wise  man,  a  little  nervous  in 
his  manner  and  a  little  fidgety,  yet  of  a  sound  and  quiet  judgment. 
His  objection  to  the  English  universities,  which  he  expressed  strongly, 
was,  that,  with  such  great  resources  of  property  and  talent,  they  yet 
effect  so  little.  Hallam's  establishment  is  not  a  shoA\'y  one,  but  it  is 
rich  and  respectable 

We  dined  at  Edward  Villiers',  where  we  met  old  Mrs.  Villiers, 
Mrs.  Trotter,  —  another  of  the  Ravensworths,*  —  Bouverie,  the  son 

*  Mrs.  Edward  Villiers  was  a  daughter  of  Lord  Ravensworth. 


M.  46.]  SIR  EDMUND  HEAD.  149 

of  Lord  Radnor,  Sir  Edmund  Head,"^  —  a  remote  cousin  of  Sir  Fran- 
cis, —  Stephenson  the  great  engineer,  and  one  or  two  others.  It 
was  agreeable,  but  I  took  most  to  Sir  E.  Head,  a  man  of  about  thirty- 
five,  who  has  much  pleasant  literary  knowledge,  and  who  has  been  in 
I  Spain  and  studied  its  literature.  Stephenson  showed  genius  in  his 
conversation,  and  altogether  we  were  enticed  to  stay  late. 

Ap^il  1. — A  delightful  breakfast  at  Kenyon's.  Southey  and  his 
son  were  there  ;  Chorley,  the  biographer  of  Mrs.  Hemans,  and  much 
given  to  music  ;  and  two  or  three  others.  Southey,  who  is  in  town  for 
two  or  three  days,  is  grown  older  since  I  saw  him  three  years  ago  at 
Keswick,  more  than  those  years  imply.  The  death  of  his  wife,  .... 
which  might  have  been  thought  a  relief  to  his  sufferings  on  her  ac- 
count, has  yet  proved  an  addition  to  them,  and  he  has  now  all  the 
appearance  of  a  saddened  and  even  a  broken  man.  Still,  he  talked 
well  this  morning,  —  though  in  a  voice  lower  than  ever,  —  and  was 
once  warmed  when  speaking  of  Wordsworth,  for  whom  his  admiration 
seems  all  but  boundless.  Coleridge  (H.  N.)  says  he  is  weary  of  life, 
and  certainly  he  has  all  the  appearance  of  it. 

I  made,  too,  this  morning,  a  pleasant  visit  to  the  kind  old  Professor 
Smyth,  of  Cambridge,  ....  and  arranged  with  him  to  be  in  Cam- 
bridge on  the  14th  (Easter),  to  pass  a  couple  of  days  there  ;  and  then 
went  to  Sir  Francis  Doyle's,  whom  I  found  much  changed,  by  severe 
and  long-continued  disease,  but  still  with  the  same  distingue^  gentle- 
manlike air  he  had  when  I  knew  him  three  years  ago. 

I  dined  with  Bates,  the  banker.  Van  De  Weyer,t  the  Belgian  Min- 
ister, was  there,  —  an  acute  and  pleasant  person,  talking  English  al- 
most perfectly  well,  —  and  Murray,  formerly  secretary  to  Lord  Lynd- 
hurst,  and  now  the  Secretary  of  the  great  Ecclesiastical  Commission, 
—  a  very  good  scholar  and  a  very  thorough  Tory,  who  talks  with 
some  brilliancy  and  effect. 

In  the  evening  I  had  an  engagement  to  go  to  Lord  Holland's,  who 
is  now  passing  a  few  days  at  his  luxurious  establishment  in  South 
Street.  I  found  there  Lord  Albemarle,  Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Lord  Mel- 
bourne, the  Sardinian  Minister,  Young  Ellice  and  his  beautiful,  high- 
bred wife,  Allen,  and  some  others.  Pozzo  di  Borgo  was  brilliant,  and 
Lady  Holland  disagreeable.  Lord  Holland  talked  about  Prescott's 
"  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  as  did  John  Allen,  and  gave  it  high  praise  ; 
Allen  pronouncing  the  chapters  on  the  "  Constitutions  of  Castile  and 

*  Twenty  years  later  this  acquaintance  between  Sir  E.  Head  and  Mr.  Ticknor 
grew  to  an  intimate  friendship.     This  was  their  first  meeting, 
t  Soon  afterwards  Mr.  Bates's  son-in-law. 


150  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

Arragon  "  —  particularly  the  last  —  to  be  better  than  the  correspond- 
ing discussions  in  Hallam's  "Middle  Ages."  This  I  regard  as  de- 
cisive. No  man  alive  is  better  authority  on  such  a  point  than  Allen. 
Southey,  too,  this  morning,  was  equally  decided,  though  he  was  not 
so  strong,  and  did  not  go  so  much  into  detail.  Lord  Albemarle,  Lord 
Holland,  and  Allen  talked  about  Dr.  Channing ;  and  Lord  Holland 
said  he  regarded  him  as  the  best  writer  of  English  alive.  So  we  are 
getting  on  in  the  world.  Such  things  could  not  have  been  heard  in 
such  saloons  when  I  was  here  twenty  years  ago. 

April  2.  —  Breakfasted  with  Sydney  Smith,  where  we  had  only 
Hallam  and  Tytler,  the  Scotch  historian  ;  just  a  partie  carree,  of  the 
first  sort.  The  conversation,  at  one  time  during  the  breakfast,  was 
extraordinary.  It  fell  on  the  influence  of  the  aristocracy  in  England, 
on  the  social  relations,  and  especially  on  the  characters  of  men  of  let- 
ters. To  my  considerable  sur^^rise,  both  Hallam  and  Smith,  who 
have  been  to  a  singular  degree  petted  and  sought  by  the  aristocracy, 
pronounced  its  influence  noxious.  They  even  spoke  with  great  force 
and  almost  bitterness  on  the  point.  Smith  declared  that  he  had  fomid 
the  influence  of  the  aristocracy,  in  his  own  case,  "  oppressive,"  but 
added,  "  However,  I  never  failed,  I  think,  to  speak  my  mind  before 
any  of  them  ;  I  hardened  myself  early."  Hallam  agreed  with  him, 
and  both  talked  with  a  concentrated  force  that  showed  how  deeply 
they  felt  about  it.  In  some  respects,  the  conversation  was  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  I  have  ever  heard  ;  and,  as  a  testimony  against  aris- 
tocracy, on  the  point  where  aristocracy  might  be  expected  to  work  the 
most  favorably,  surprised  me  very  much. 

Speaking  of  the  "  Edinburgh  Eeview,"  Mr.  Smith  said  that  it  was 
begun  by  Jeffrey,  Horner,  and  himself ;  that  he  was  the  first  editor  of 
it,  and  that  they  were  originally  unwilling  to  give  Brougham  any 
direct  influence  over  it,  because  he  was  so  violent  and  unmanageable. 
After  he  —  Smith  —  left  Edinburgh,  Jefl"rey  became  the  editor  ;  "  but," 
said  Smith,  "  I  never  would  be  a  contributor  on  the  common  business 
footing.  When  I  wrote  an  article,  I  used  to  send  it  to  Jefl^rey,  and 
waited  till  it  came  out ;  immediately  after  which  I  enclosed  to  him 
a  bill,  in  these  words,  or  words  like  them  :  '  Francis  Jeffrey,  Esq., 
to  Rev.  Sydney  Smith,  —  To  a  very  wise  and  witty  article,  on  such 
a  subject,  so  many  sheets,  at  forty-five  guineas  a  sheet.'  And  the 
money  always  came.     I  never  worked  for  less." 

Hallam  told  a  droll  story  about  Canning's  occasional  unwillingness 
to  devote  himself  to  business.  The  principal  person  in  the  manage- 
ment of  Indian  affairs  —  who  related  the  fact  to  Hallam  —  had  occa- 


JE.  46.]  LANSDOWNE  HOUSE.  151 

sioii  cmce  to  press  Mr.  Canning,  as  Premier,  for  several  weeks,  to  look 
over  and  determine  some  matters  quite  important  to  the  condition  of 
India.  The  business  was  disagreeable,  and  Canning  disliked  to  touch 
it,  though  the  delay  was  becoming  injurious  to  the  service.  At  last, 
much  urged,  he  promised  to  come  to  the  proper  office,  on  a  certain 
evening,  and  finish  the  business.  He  came,  but  said  he  hated  the 
whole  thing  ;  that  he  had  come  only  because  he  had  given  his  word  ; 
and  then,  turning  suddenly  on  the  Secretary,  "  Now,  if  you  will  let 
me  off  from  this  business  to-night,  I  will  treat  you  to  Astley's."  The 
Secretary  saw  it  was  idle  to  do,  or  to  attempt  to  do,  anything  like 
serious  work  with  the  Premier  while  in  such  a  himior,  and  accepted 
the  invitation  to  the  amphitheatre,  leaving  India  to  suffer  till  Can- 
ning's sense  of  duty  should  make  him  industrious. 

After  the  singular  conversation  about  the  influence  of  the  aristoc- 
racy  this  morning,  it  seemed  somewhat  odd,  at  dinner-time,  in  that 
trulv  aristocratic  establishment  at  Lansdowne  House,  to  stumble  at 

once  upon  Sydney  Smith We  had  to  wait  dinner  a  little  for 

Lord  Lansdowne,  who,  as  President  of  the  Council,  had  been  de- 
tained in  the  House  of  Lords,  fighting  with  Brougham,  whom  he 
pronounced  to  be  more  able  and  formidable  than  at  any  previous 
period  of  his  life.  Lord  Lansdowne  seemed  in  excellent  spirits.  Not 
so  Lady  L.  As  she  went  in  to  dinner,  surrounded  by  the  most  beau- 
tiful monuments  of  the  arts,  and  sat  down  with  Canova's  Venus  be- 
hind her,  she  complained  to  me,  naturally  and  sincerely,  of  the  weari- 
ness of  a  London  life,  and  said  that  it  was  almost  aS  bad  at  Bowood, 
with  Lord  Lansdowne  ahvays  coming  up  to  to^^TL  to  attend  the  Coun- 
cil. But  the  talk  was  brilliant.  Senior  is  always  agreeable,  but,  by 
the  side  of  Sydney  Smith  and  Jeffrey,  of  course  he  put  in  no  claim  ; 
and  I  must  needs  say,  that  when  I  saw  Smith's  free  good-humor,  and 
the  delight  with  vrhich  everybody  listened  to  him,  I  thought  there 
were  but  small  traces  of  the  aristocratic  oppression  of  which  he  had 
so  much  complained  in  the  morning.     Lord  Jeffrey,  too,  seemed  to  be 

fidl  of  good  things  and  good  sayings Fine  talk  it  certainly 

was,  often  brilliant,  always  enjoyable.  The  subjects  were  Parliament 
and  Brougham  ;  the  theatre  and  Macready  ;  reviewing,  apropos  of 
which  the  old  re\T^ewers  hit  one  another  hard  ;  the  literature  of  the 
day,  which  was  spoken  of  lightly  ;  Prescott's  "  Ferdinand  and  Isa- 
bella," which  Lord  Lansdowne  said  he  had  boughjt  from  its  reputa-' 
tion,  and  which  Milman  in  his  quiet  way  praised 

April  3.  —  Breakfasted  at  Dr.  Holland's,  where  I  met  only  Hallam. 
Of  course  I  had  a  most  pleasant  time,  for  there  are  hardly  better 


152  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1S38. 

talkers  in  London.  Dr.  Holland  came  fresh  from  a  professional  visit 
to  the  Duke  of  Sussex,  whom  he  had  found  reading  his  Hebrew  Bible, 
whose  margins  were  filled  with  his  Highness's  notes  ;  a  rare  instance 
of  royal  exegesis,  but  I  apprehend  rather  a  whim  of  the  Duke  than 
the  result  of  very  solid  learning.  Dr.  Holland  told  us  a  somewhat 
strange  story  of  the  Duke's  boyhood,  which  the  Duke  had  told  him 
this  morning. 

George  III.  —  as  is  well  knowTi  —  was  strict  with  his  children  ;  and 
one  day  when  with  their  tutor,  in  a  sort  of  regular  school-hours,  the 
Duke  was  seized  with  that  asthma  which  has  pursued  him  through 
life,  and  for  which  he  was  —  when  he  related  the  fact  —  consulting 
Dr.  Holland  for  the  first  time.  The  disease  made  his  breathing  at 
once  audible  ;  and  the  tutor,  mistaking  the  noise  for  a  voluntary  one, 
ordered  the  young  Duke  to  be  quiet.  He  replied  that  he  could  not, 
and  the  noise  was  continued,  until  the  tutor,  after  two  or  three  re- 
bukes and  threats,  called  him  up  and  flogged  him  soundly  ;  a  disci- 
pline which  the  Duke  assured  Dr.  Holland  was  not  of  rare  occur- 
rence  

We  dined  in  the  city,  with  our  excellent  friends  the  Vaughans, 
where  we  met  Lough,  the  sculptor,  who  was  quite  amusing.  He 
married  in  Italv,  and  returning  last  summer  with  two  or  three  chil- 
dren,  he  had  much  difficulty  in  reconciling  them  to  the  appearance 
of  things  in  London.  When  they  saw  the  sun  through  the  fog,  they 
exclaimed,  ''  Che  brutta  luna  ! "  *  and  could  not  be  persuaded  to  call 
it  anvthing  else. 

Ajjril  5.  —  Hallam  —  by  previous  arrangement  —  came  to  us  this 
morning,  and  gave  us  the  whole  forenoon  at  the  British  Museum,  of 
which  he  is  a  trustee,  and  through  the  whole  wilderness  of  which  he 
carried  us,  in  what  is  called  "  a  private  view."  This  is  understood  to 
be  a  considerable  favor  and  distinction,  but  I  must  needs  say,  it  proved 

a  truly  wearisome  one Hallam's  patience  was  admirable,  and 

he  was  agreeable  to  the  end  of  the  almost  endless  visit. 

April  6.  —  We  dined  at  Hallam's,  a  party  made  for  us,  and  it 
would  not  be  easy  to  make  one  more  delightful  :  AYhewell  and  Pro- 
fessor Smji:h,  of  Cambridge  ;  Milman  ;  Sir  Francis  Palgrave,  the  his- 
torian, and  Keeper  of  the  Records  at  Westminster  ;  Empson,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Sir  James  Mackintosh  ;  a  sister  of  Hallam,  and  his  young 
daughter,  with  one  or  two  more,  just  enough,  and  of  the  most 
agreeable  varieties.  The  conversation  was  as  various  as  the  people. 
The  only  regular  talk  or  discussion  was  on  the  German  universities, 

*  "  What  an  ugly  moon  I '' 


M.  4C.]  MR.  AND   MRS.   HENRY  N.   COLERIDGE.  153 

« 

and  I  was  well  pleased  to  find  tluit  in  sncli  an  academical  company 
justice  was  done  to  them.  It  would  not  have  been  so  twenty  years 
ago.  But  Whewell  and  Hallam  are  above  all  common  prejudices,  at 
least 

April  7.  — We  made  a  most  delightful  Adsit  to  Miss  Joanna  Baillie. 
....  She  talked  of  Scott  with  a  tender  enthusiasm  that  was  con- 
tagious, n.nd  of  Lockhart  with  a  kindness  that  is  uncommon  when 
coupled  with  his  name,  and  which  seemed  only  characteristic  of  her 
benevolence.  It  is  very  rare  that  old  age,  or,  indeed,  any  age,  is  found 
so  winning  and  agreeable.  I  do  not  wonder  that  Scott  in  his  letters 
treats  her  with  more  deference,  and  writes  to  her  with  more  care  and 
beauty,  than  to  any  other  of  his  corres^^ondents,  however  high  or 
titled 

We  dined  at  Henry  N.  Coleridge's.  He  lives  very  pleasantly  near 
Eegent's  Park,  and  old  Mrs.  Coleridge,  the  widow  of  S.  T.  Coleridge 
and  mother  of  his  wife,  lives  with  him.  The  Head  Master  of  Eton 
was  there, —  a  stiff  dominie,  but  not  without  agreeable  talk, —  and  two 
or  three  barristers,  with  as  many  ladies,  and  the  dinner  was  agreeable. 
Coleridge  himself  has  a  good  deal  of  acuteness. 

In  talking  of  Southey  and  Wordsworth,  he  said  —  what  is  accord- 
ing to  my  own  impression — that  Wordsworth  has  a  keen  enjoyment 
of  life,  and  he  added  that  Southey  is  become  extremely  weary  of  life. 
Not  long  since,  he  said,  somebody  was  predicting  what  they  should 
see,  if  he  and  Southey  lived  ten  years  longer.  Without  directly  in- 
terru2:»ting  him,  Southey  clasped  his  hands  and  cast  his  eyes  upward, 
ejaculating  parenthetically,  "Which  God  m  his  infinite  mercy  for- 
bid ! "  and  seemed  to  shudder  all  over  at  the  thought  of  his  possibly 
living  so  long.  He  has  been  in  this  melancholy  state,  I  under- 
stand, ever  since  Mrs.  Southey  first  gave  signs  of  insanity,  about  five 
years  ago. 

Mrs.  Coleridge,  the  elder,  presided  at  the  table,  her  daughter  not 
being  well  enough,  from  recent  illness,  to  be  in  her  place  ;  but  she 

came  down  into  the  saloon  afterwards Her  health  has  long 

been  bad,  and  she  showed  to-day  but  slight  traces  of  the  round,  hap- 
py, and  most  beautiful  creature  I  knew,  just  sixteen  years  old,  in  1819, 
at  Southey's.  But  she  was  very  lady-like  and  gentle  in  her  manner, 
and  showed  occasionally  bright  flashes  of  spirit  and  fancy.  She  is 
very  pleasing,  too,  and  I  dare  say  has  much  of  the  extraordinary  tal- 
ent her  father  gives  her  credit  for.  AYe  enjoyed  our  visit,  and,  though 
tired  with  a  laborious  day,  stayed  late. 

April  9.  —  We  went  this  morning,  by  the  invitation  of  Sir  Francis 
7* 


154  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1S38. 

Palgrave,  and  visited  the  old  records  in  the  Chapter  House  at  West- 
minster ;  the  oldest  records  in  the  kingdom,  of  which  he  has  the 
charge.  They  proved  extremely  curious  ;  for  among  them  were 
Doomsday  Book,  in  two  volumes  of  unequal  size,  but  singularly  legi- 
ble, and  well  arranged  in  a  close,  neat  hand  ;  all  the  oldest  records  of 
the  administration  of  justice  in  the  kingdom  ;  the  contracts  between 
Henry  YII.  and  the  Abbot  of  Westminster,  for  building  the  Abbey, 
with  the  donations  for  that  purpose  of  the  pious  monarch  ;  treaties 
of  Henry  YIII.,  and  I  know  not  what  else  ;  besides  another  large 
room  full  of  a  wild  confusion  of  old  parchments.  The  very  archi- 
tecture of  these  repositories,  with  its  unhewn  or  unsmoothed  timbers, 
—  dating  from  1250,  —  was  in  keeping,  and  added  to  the  curious  ven- 
erableness  of  the  whole  arrangement. 

When  we  had  seen  all  this  we  went  to  the  Cloisters,  where  Milman, 
amidst  the  remains  of  the  monastery  of  the  elder  religion,  has  a  most 
tasteful  and  quiet  mansion,  arranged  ....  by  Inigo  Jones.  He 
came  immediately  out  and  went  over  the  Abbey  with  us.  We  ad- 
mired, of  course,  the  magnificent  choir,  one  of  the  finest  specimens 
of  rich  Gothic  in  the  world  ;  the  elaborate  chapel  of  Henry  YIL, 
....  and  the  other  architectural  wonders  and  beauties  of  this  rare 
and  solemn  pile.     But,  after  all,  the  parts  that  have  historical  names 

attached  to  them  are  most  attractive In  the  Poets'  Corner  it  was 

not  without  a  very  thrilling  feeling,  that,  on  reading  the  inscription 
to  Goldsmith,  I  suddenly  found  myself  standing  on  the  grave  of  John- 
son, who  wrote  it The  whole  visit  was  most  interesting 

April  13.  —  Made  a  truly  delightful  visit  to  Mrs.  Somerville  at  Chel- 
sea, who  is  certainly  among  the  most  extraordinary  women  that  have 
ever  lived,  both  by  the  simplicity  of  her  character  and  the  singular 
variety,  power,  and  brilliancy  of  her  talents.  Afterwards  I  went  to 
see  Lord  Jeffrey,  who  is  unwell,  and  confined  to  his  room,  and  from 
whom  I  wanted  a  little  advice  about  my  coming  journey  to  Scot- 
land. I  found  him  with  Empson,  ....  a  very  agreeal;)ie  man  of 
great  knowledge 

I  went  afterwards  to  the  Albany,  to  dine  wath  the  admirable,  de- 
lightful old  Mr.  Elphinstone,  the  gentle,  learned  old  gentleman  Ave 

knew  at  Rome His  establishment  here  is  truly  comfortable 

and  agreeable,  in  the  midst  of  a  fine  library ;  but  it  is  not  luxurious, 
and  the  secret  of  the  whole  is,  that  he  is  a  AAdse  man,  who  makes  him- 
self happier  with  the  society  of  the  first  mark  and  intellect  in  Lon- 
don, which  is  all  open  to  him,  and  who  knows  that  he  is  happier  than 
he  could  be  made  by  an  Indian  income  bought  by  ten  years'  more 
absence  from  home.     Felix  qiii  potuit. 


M.  46.]  CAMBRIDGE.  155 

The  party  to-day  consisted  of  Empson  ;  llicliardson,  so  much  men- 
tioned by  Lockhart  as  Scott's  friend  ;  Mackenzie,  son  of  the  "  Man  of 
Feeling,"  kmg  Secretary-General  in  India  ;  Phillips,*  the  barrister  ; 
Murchison,  the  man  of  fashion  and  the  great  geologist ;  Professor  Wil- 
son, of  the  London  University  ;  Colonel  Leake,  the  Greek  traveller  ; 
and  Wilkinson,  the  Egyptian  traveller. 

We  sat  at  a  round  table,  just  ten  of  us,  and  the  service  of  plate, 
given  to  Mr.  Elphinstone  when  he  left  Bombay,  which  covered  the 
table  so  that  the  cloth  could  hardly  be  seen,  was  one  of  the  richest  and 
most  tasteful  I  ever  looked  upon.  There  was  not  a  person  whom  I 
met  there  to-day  that  was  not  a  remarkable  man,  —  remarkable  by 
his  culture  and  accomplishments,  and  by  the  consideration  he  enjoys 
in  society.  Of  course,  it  was  very  agreeable.  We  talked  about  Scot- 
land and  Scott ;  about  Lockhart,  with  whom  Murchison  is  very  inti- 
mate ;  about  India,  Rome,  Bunsen,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  ; 
about  America  and  American  literature  ;  and  —  as  its  antipodes  by 
antiquity  and  everything  else  —  of  EgyjDt.  In  short,  the  conversa- 
tion was  as  various  and  pleasant  as  possible,  and  I  stayed  dreadfully 

late We  did  not  sit  down  till  half  ]Dast  eight,  nor  did  we  get 

up  till  midnight. 

On  the  14th  of  April  Mr.  Ticknor  left  London  with  his  wife 
and  his  eldest  daughter,  and  reached  Cambridge  early  the  same 
day.     The  following  characteristic  note  awaited  them  there  :  — 

Peter  House,  Wednesday. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  The  chickens  will  wait  your  pleasure  at  the  Bull 
at  six,  and  I  shall  come  do^ATi  to  you  at  eight,  to  show  you  the  way  to 
my  cell.  I  am  angling  for  some  sirens,  whom  if  I  catch,  your  ladies 
vnW  have  some  choice  music.  I  have  mounted  you  to  the  second 
story,  that  your  bedroom  may  be  close  to  your  daughter's. 

The  spring  has  peeped  in  upon  us,  and  ydW.  not,  I  hope,  change  her 

mind  after  her  April  manner ;   still,  our  walks  are  not  yet  in  any 

beauty. 

With  best  remembrances  to  your  ladies, 

Wm.  Smyth. 
JOURNAL. 

Ajyril  14.  —  .  .  .  .  While  the  servants  were  unpacking  the  carriage 
and  imperials,  we  went  out  and  took  a  walk  behind  Trinity  and  some 
of  the  other  colleges,  in  the  gardens  that  border  the  banks  of  the  Cam. 

*  Thomas  J.  Phillips,  mentioned  in  Vol.  I.  p.  4i3. 


156  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 


•      •      • 


Some  parts  of  the  glorious  old  establishment  I  found  much 
altered  and  improved  ;  a  new  and  grand  quadrangle  to  Trinity,  a 
superb  screen  and  hall  to  King's,  and  other  large  improvements,  fin- 
ished or  going  on,  among  which  is  a  fine  University  library  ;  so  that 
Cambridge  is  gaining  upon  Oxford,  where  no  such  improvements  have 
taken  place  for  a  long  time 

We  went  [to  Professor  Smyth's  rooms]  before  nine,  and  had  a  very 
agreeable  party.  "VVhewell  and  Sedgwick,  the  two  great  men  of  the 
University  ;  Clark,  the  head  of  the  Medical  Department ;  Peacock, 
next  to  Whewell  and  Sedgwick  in  general  reputation  ;  a  considerable 
number  of  ladies,  among  them  two  Miss  Skrines  and  Miss  Wilkins, 

who  sing  very  well,  and  whom  Smyth  calls  his  nightingales 

We  had  a  little  supper,  and  what  between  the  music  and  excellent 
talk,  stayed  very  late. 

AjJril  15.  —  Easter  Sunday At  two  o'clock  Dr.  and  Mrs. 

Clarke,  and  some  other  of  the  professors,  came  and  carried  us  to  the 
afternoon  service  at  King's  College  Chapel.  It  was  very  fine,  espe- 
cially the  music,  and  everything  produced  its  full  efi"ect  in  that  mag- 
nificent and  solemn  hall,  the  finest  of  its  sort,  no  doubt,  in  the  world. 
Afterwards  I  went  with  Whewell  and  Sedgwick  ....  to  dine  in  the 
Hall  of  Trinity,  a  grand  old  place,  vast,  and  a  little  gloomy  and  rude, 
with  its  ancient  rafters  ;  but  imposing,  and  worthy  of  the  first  college 

in  the  world,  for  the  numbers  of  great  men  it  has  produced It 

is  the  fashion  for  a  nobleman,  when  he  comes  here,  to  be  furnished 
with  a  silver  cover,  forks  and  spoons,  etc.,  and  to  leave  them  when  he 

goes  away It  chanced  to-day  that  I  had  poor  Lord  Milton's 

cover,  with  his  name  and  arms  on  it,  which  led  to  some  sad  talk  with 
the  Fellows,  who  retain  a  very  lively  recollection  of  his  winning  char- 
acter and  striking  talents.  At  our  table  there  were  several  strangers, 
the  most  remarkable  of  whom  were  Sir  Francis  Forbes,  just  from 
India,  and  the  famous  Joseph  Hume,  M.  P.,  of  radical  notoriety. 

After  dinner,  according  to  ancient  custom,  a  huge  silver  cup  or 
pitcher  was  passed  round,  containing  what  is  called  Audit  Ale,  or 
very  fine  old  ale  which  is  given  to  the  tenants  of  the  College  when 
they  come  to  audit  their  accounts  and  pay  their  rents.  We  all  drank 
from  it  standing  up,  each,  as  his  turn  came,  -wishing  prosperity  to  the 
Collefje.  When  this  was  over  an  enormous  silver  ewer  and  basin, 
given  by  James  First's  Duke  of  Buckingham,  were  passed  down,  filled 

with  rose-water,  into  which  each   one  dipped  his  napkin 

Finally,  a  small  choir  of  selected  singers  came  into  the  hall  and  sang 
the  Latin  chants  appropriate  to  the  day,  with  great  richness  and  power, 


M.  46.]  TRINITY  COLLEGE.  157 

attracting  a  crowd  in  at  the  doors,  among  whom  were  several  ladies, 
who  looked  oddly  out  of  place  in  such  a  monastic  refectory.  It  was 
a  fine  finale  to  the  grave  and  ceremonious  entertainment. 

We  now  adjourned  to  the  Comljination  Room,  where,  in  great  lux- 
ury and  comfort,  a  dessert  and  wines  were  arranged  for  the  members 
of  the  table  of  dais.  We  had  done  pretty  well,  I  thought,  in  the  way 
of  wine  in  the  Hall,  where  there  was  an  extraordinary  amount  of 
health-drinking,  but  here  we  had  it  on  a  more  serious  and  regular 
footing.  We  had,  too,  a  j^lenty  of  good  conversation  ;  among  the  rest, 
on  Serjeant  Talfourd's  Bill,  and  the  Post-Office  Bill 

At  last  the  bell  rang  for  evening  prayers  ....  and  broke  us  up. 
The  chapel  was  brilliantly  lighted,  and  the  IMaster  and  Fellows,  in 
their  robes  of  ceremony,  made  a  striking  appearance  ;  though  the 
whole,  with  the  turnings  and  bowings  to  the  altar,  and  frequent 
genuflections,  looked  a  little  too  much,  like  what  we  had  a  surfeit 
of  at  Rome  last  year 

From  the  chapel  —  where  the  ladies,  with  Mrs.  Clarke,  had  joined 
"US  —  we  went  to  Professor  Whewell's  rooms  in  Trinity,  the  same 
where,  twenty  years  ago,  I  used  to  pass  my  time  with  the  present 
Bishop  of  Gloucester,  Monk,  who  was  then  Greek  professor  here. 
We  had  a  pleasant  party,  ....  enjoyed  a  nice  cup  of  academical  tea, 
gossiped  very  merrily,  looked  over  rare  books,  prints,  and  a  good 
many  spirited  drawings  and  sketches  from  nature,  by  WheweU,  who 
seems  to  have  all  talents  ;  had  some  excellent  stories  told  with  much 
humor  by  Smyth,  and  political  talk  from  Hume,  w^hich  sounded 
quaintly  inappropriate  in  these  Tory  cloisters  ;  and  finall}^,  at  eleven 
o'clock,  wound  up  the  whole  with  a  gay  petit  souper,  and  were  gal- 
lantly escorted  home  by  the  good  Professor  Smyth,  just  before  mid- 
night. 

April  16. —  .  .  .  .  Before  breakfast  was  over  we  had  a  visit  from 
Sedgwick  and  Smyth,  who  were  as  agreeable  as  possible,  and  eager  to 
lionize  the  town  to  us We  went  with  them  first  to  the  Uni- 
versity library,  ....  and  afterwards  to  the  Trinity  College  library, 
•which  is  well  worth  seeing  ;  for,  like  everything  else  about  this  rich 
and  magnificent  College,  its  library  is  large,  curious,  and  well  pre- 
served. But  there  are  two  collections  in  it  that  hardly  permit  a 
stranger  to  look  at  anything  else.  The  first  is  a  large  mass  of  the 
papers  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  both  mathematical  and  relating  to  his 
oflice  as  Master  of  the  Mint,  with  correspondence,  etc.  ;  and  the  other 
is  the  collection  of  Milton's  papers,  chiefly  in  his  own  handwriting, 
including  Comus,  Lycidas,  Ai-cades,  Sonnets,  etc.,  and  some  letters. 


158  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

whicli  have  been  bound  up,  and  preserved  here  about  a  century. 
Nothing  of  the  sort  can  be  more  interesting  or  curious,  especially  the 
many  emendations  of  Milton's  poems  in  his  own  hand. 

Twenty  years  ago  I  remember  being  shown,  at  Ferrara,  the  origi- 
nal manuscript  of  Ariosto's  "  Orlando  Furioso,"  and  the  old  librarian 
pointed  out  to  me,  at  the  bottom  of  a  blotted  page,  these  words,  with 
a  date,  all  in  pencil,  "  Vittorio  Altieri  vide  e  venero,"  adding  that 
when  Alfieri  wrote  them,  his  tears  fell  so  fast  that  they  dropped  on 
the  paper  and  blistered  it.  It  was  impossible  to  avoid  having  some- 
thing of  the  same  feeling  when  looking  at  these  venerable  remains  of 
two  of  the  greatest  men,  in  the  opposite  departments  of  science  and 
poetry,  that  the  world  has  ever  seen 

There  was  one  thing,  however,  that  Professor  Smyth  was  anxious 
to  show  us,  and  we  went,  of  course,  to  see  it.  It  is  an  original  por- 
trait of  Cromwell,  kept  in  the  apartments  of  the  Master  of  Sydney 
College.  It  is  in  colored  chalks,  beyond  all  doubt  done  from  the  life, 
and  done,  too,  after  anxiety  had  made  deep  lines  of  care  in  his  face. 
Smyth  will  have  it  that  it  justifies  and  illustrates  completely  the 
descriptions  of  his  corroding  sufferings,  given  by  Hume  with  such 
vivacity,  immediately  after  the  death  of  Mrs.  Claypole,  and  immedi- 
ately before  his  own.  In  fact,  Mr.  Smyth  had  been  carrying  the  vol- 
ume of  Hume  with  him  all  the  morning  round  Cambridge,  and  now 
read  the  passage  to  us  with  great  spirit  and  feeling,  to  justify  his  opin- 
ion. No  doubt  the  picture  is  very  striking,  and  so  is  Hume's  account 
of  Cromwell,  and  both  belong  to  anything  but  a  man  of  an  easy  or 
tranquil  mind.  But  I  doubt  whether  Cromwell  ever  suffered  so  much 
from  remorse,  as  Hume,  in  this  particular  passage,  supposes.  Indeed, 
a  few  pages  later  he  seems  to  admit  it. 

....  When  we  had  rested,  we  went  to  dinner  at  Professor  Smyth's. 
He  has  a  verv  comfortable  bachelor  establishment  in  Peter  House, 
the  same,  I  think,  that  was  occupied  by  Gray  the  poet,  whose  succes- 
sor he  is  in  the  chair  of  History,  a  place  given  to  him  by  Lord  Lans- 
downe  when  the  Whigs  were  in  power,  above  thirty  years  ago.  He 
received  us  in  his  library,  which  is  well  stored  with  a  somewhat  mis- 
cellaneous collection  of  books,  in  history  and  poetry,  and  the  little 
party  soon  collected  there  to  the  number  of  eight  or  ten,  including 
the  Yice-Chancellor  Worseley,  Master  of  Do^vning,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Skinner,  counted  among  the  agreeables  of  Cambridge,  and  Professor 
Peacock,  counted  among  the  very  agreeable.  We  had  a  cheerful, 
pleasant  time  in  the  very  comfortable  dining-room.  Worseley  is  more 
of  a  belles-lettres  scholar  and  knows  more  continental  literature  than 


M.  46.]  NORTH  OF  ENGLAND.  159 

is  commonly  found  in  these  cloistered  establishments,  and  Peacock  is 
an  excellent  talker. 

We  were  invited  to  a  party  at  the  Skrines',  but  declined,  so  as  to 
stay  as  late  as  we  could  with  our  admirable  old  friend,  whose  kindli- 
ness, gayety  of  heart,  and  talent  have  been  our  constant  delight  since 
we  have  been  in  Cambridge.  At  last,  between  eleven  and  twelve,  we 
took  our  leave,  and  the  old  gentleman,  coming  down  stairs  and  fol- 
lowing us  to  the  gate  of  his  College,  gave  us  a  sort  of  paternal  bene- 
diction in  the  open  street.     We  parted  from  him  with  great  regret. 

A  night  passed  at  Milton,  Lord  Fitzwilliam's  delightful  place 
in  Northamptonshire,  where  the  kind  hospitality  of  three  years 
before  was  renewed,  was  followed  by  a  course  of  cathedrals  and 
show-houses,  on  the  northern  route,  from  Ely  to  Alnwick,  until 
the  Scottish  Border  country  was  reached. 

The  hills  which  we  crossed,  in  order  to  strike  the  Tweed  at  its  most 
favorable  point,  were  dreary  and  barren  enough,  and  the  ranges  of 
huts  or  hovels  we  saw,  scattered  through  their  ridges,  in  which  live  a 
sort  of  bondmen,  of  a  peculiar  character,  were  anything  but  agreeable 
to  look  upon.  I  did  not  before  suppose  that  anything  so  nearly  ap- 
proaching servitude  was  still  to  be  found  in  England  ;  but  here  it  is, 
not  better  than  was  the  condition  of  the  serfs  in  Bohemia  before 
Joseph  II.'s  time,  or  those  in  Silesia  before  they  were  liberated  by  the 
present  King  of  Prussia.  I  doubt  whether  there  is  anything  so  bad 
now  in  Europe,  out  of  Kussia.* 

*  William  Howitt  describes  this  condition  of  the  people  in  his  "  Rural  Life 
of  England,"  in  a  chapter  on  the  ''Bondage  System  of  the  North  of  England." 


160  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

Abbotsford.  —  Edinburgh.  —  Maxwells  of  Terregles. —  Wordsworth  and 
Southey.  —  Manchester.  —  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Greg.  —  Oxford.  —  Althorp. 
—  London.  —  Return  to  America. 


JOURNAL. 

Ajml  22.  —  "We  drove  to  Melrose,  "  fair  Melrose,"  ....  took 
horses  and  went  on  to  Abbotsford.  My  feelings  were  hardly  more 
changed  on  approaching  it,  from  what  they  were  when  I  approached 
it  nineteen  years  ago,  than  was  the  place  itself.  We  had  been  read- 
ing on  our  journey  the  last  sad  volume  of  Lockhart's  Life,  with  the 
account  of  Scott's  pecuniary  troubles,  and  their  tragical  result.  The 
first  glimpse  of  Abbotsford  made  us  feel  that  we  knew  their  cause  ; 
we  put  our  feet  in  its  court-yard,  and  were  sure  of  it 

The  house  is  grown  very  large.  It  is  somewhat  fantastic  in  its 
forms  and  appearance,  but  still  from  several  points  produces  a  good 
effect.  The  grounds  immediately  adjacent  to  it  are  pretty,  and  the 
garden,  with  its  conservatories,  is  such  as  should  belong  only  to  a 
large  and  free  fortune,  one  much  larger  than  Scott's  was.  The  in- 
scription in  it  struck  me  as  beautiful  and  happy,  though  I  believe  it 
would  be  difficult  to  find  the  very  words  in  the  Yulgate,  or  elsewhere, 
—  "  Audiebant  vocem  Domini  ambulantis  in  Horto."  But  it  is  one 
of  those  "  accommodations  "  which  are  very  characteristic  of  Scott. 

We  went,  of  course,  all  over  the  house,  seeing  things  most  of  which 
it  was  painful  to  look  upon But  there  was  not  much  else  [ex- 
cept some  pictures]  to  recall  the  cottage  which  I  visited  in  1819  so 
happily,  and,  indeed,  it  was  not  without  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  that 
1  found  the  room  in  which  I  was  lodged,  now  neglected  and  given  up 
to  mean  uses,  but  then  one  of  the  best  in  the  house.  It  is  all  a  pity. 
The  house  was  then  well  suited  to  his  fortune,  and  is  now  only  the 

monimient  of  his  ruin In  a  niche  [in  the  library]  where  he 

himself  had  placed  a  cast  of  Shakespeare's  head,  there  now  stands  the 
bust  of  himself  by  Chantrey,  idealized,  no  doubt,  and  with  more  of 


M  46.]  EDINBURGH.  IGl 

smooth  symmetiy  than  belonged  to  his  head  at  any  period,  but  a 
beautiful  work  of  art  and  an  admirable  likeness.  It  will  be  the  type 
of  his  head  with  posterity,  because  the  one  that  will  best  answer  to 
the  claims  of  his  genius  and  his  works 

Already  what  relates  to  Scott  himself  is  more  curious  than  all  he 
collected  relating  to  others,  however  famous  and  distinguished.  Smce 
1832,  from  fifteen  hundred  to  eighteen  hundred  persons  have  come 
yearly  to  visit  his  home,  and  the  pilgrimage  will  not  cease  while  the 
stones  he  piled  u]3  remain  one  upon  another,  and  the  English  contin- 
ues a  living  tongue.     But  it  is  now,  and  must  long  remain,  a  sad  and 

sorrowful  place "  Follies  of  the  wise "  are  inscribed  on  all  its 

parts,  in  letters  posterity  will  not  forget,  even  if  they  learn  nothmg  by 
the  lesson  that  was  so  bitter  to  him  that  teaches  it. 

April  23.  —  We  left  Scott's  peculiar  country,  the  Tweed  side,  this 
morning  for  Edinburgh.  But  the  road  we  travelled  w^as  up  the  Gala- 
water,  and  was  his  road,  the  road  by  which  he  habitually  went  to 

Edinburgh At  Fushie  Bridge  we  had  a  little  talk  with  the 

veritable  Meg  Dods,  of  "  St.  Konan's  Well,"  a  personage  well  worthy 
of  her  reputation.  Her  real  name  is  Mistress  Wilson We  ar- 
rived at  Edinburgh  about  noon 

I  was  desirous  to  see  Napier,  the  editor  of  the  "  Edinburgh  Re- 
view," in  order  to  do  what  I  could  to  have  "  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  " 
noticed  in  that  journal,  and  therefore  I  sent  my  letters  to  him  at 

once I  received  immediately  an  extremely  civil  note  in  reply, 

saying  that  he  wished  to  see  me  ;  and  being  unwell,  and  unable  to  go 
out,  begged  me  to  call  on  him  in  the  evening.     I  went,  of  course. 

On  reaching  his  door,  I  was  a  little  disconcerted  to  find  that  he 
lives  in  what  Scott  so  mournfully  calls  "  poor  39,"  the  very  house  in 
which  I  had  passed  so  many  pleasant  hours  with  Scott  in  1819.  ...  * 
I  was  received  up  stairs  in  Mrs.  Scott's  drawing-rooms,  fitted  up  for  a 
bachelor  and  man  of  letters,  but  lighted  as  if  to  receive  a  party,  —  a 
fancy  in  which,  I  believe,  Napier  indulges  himself  every  night.  He 
is  thin  and  pale  and  nervous,  and  I  am  told,  what  between  his  Law 
Professorship  in  the  University,  and  the  labor  of  editing  the  "  Edin- 
burgh Review  "  and  the  "  Encyclopoedia  Britannica,"  he  is  kept  feeble 
and  ill  nearly  the  whole  time.  He  received  me  kindly,  with  em- 
pressement,  and  came  at  once  to  the  business,  as  I  wanted  him  to  do  ; 
and,  before  I  had  been  with  him  half  an  hour,  it  -was  fully  agreed 
that  there  should  be  an  "  Edinburgh  Review "  of  "  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella "  ;  that  Allen  should  write  it,  if  Napier  can  persuade  him  to 
do  so,  —  which  I  do  not  anticipate ;  that  otherwise  a  review  by  a 

K 


162  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

young  Spaniard,  by  nam^  Gayangos,  wliicli  I  know  Allen  will  pro- 
pose, shall  be  accepted  ;  and,  if  both  these  fail,  that  then  the  subject 
shall  be  given  to  Dunlop,  the  author  of  the  "  History  of  Fiction," 
who,  I  suppose,  will  do  it  as  a  sort  of  hack  work,  but  of  whom  Napier 
feels  sure.  I  was  glad,  however,  to  have  it  settled,  for  the  book 
deserves  all  that  any  of  its  author's  friends  can  do  for  it.  Napier 
said  it  had  been  sent  to  him,  but  that  he  had  not  looked  at  it,  and 
knew  nothing  about  it  ;  so  that  the  whole  of  his  kindly  prompt- 
ness was  owing  to  the  letters  I  brought  him,  which,  to  be  sure, 
would  carry  as  much  weight  with  them  as  any  in  the  Three  King- 
doms."^ .... 

I  asked  Napier  about  Lockhart's  Scott.  He  says  he  cannot  re- 
view it,  partly  because  Lockhart  is  editor  of  the  "  Quarterly,"  and 
partly  because  of  the  connections  of  the  work  on  all  sides  in  Edin- 
burgh ;  but  that  it  is  full  of  prejudices  and  errors  ;  that  many  per- 
sons in  Scotland  are  much  offended  by  it,  the  children  and  friends  of 
the  Ballantynes  most  justly  so,  etc.  :  much  of  which  is  no  doubt  true, 
and  some  is  prejudice  on  Napier's  part. 

Ajjril  25.  —  I  went  to  see  my  old  friend  Mrs.  Grant.f  I  found  her 
in  comfortable  quarters,  and  cheerful ;  .  .  .  .  but  from  age  and  its  in- 
firmities she  is  a  fixture,  unable  to  leave  her  chair  without  help.  But 
she  was  as  cheerful  as  she  used  to  be,  when  she  was  twenty  years 
younger,  and  had  her  children  about  her,  of  whom  John  only  re- 
mains  I  was  especially  struck  with  the  fresh  admii-ation  she 

expressed  for  Scott's  memory She  is  certainly  a  remarkable 

person. 

I  dined  with  Napier.  It  is  not  quite  agreeable  to  go  thus  to  "  poor 
39,"  and  find  it  so  altered  ;  and  when  I  was  up  stairs  before  dinner, 
I  really  felt  more  awkwardly  and  sad  than  I  should  have  thought 

possible But  there  were  pleasant  people  there  ;  my  old  friend 

Thos.  Thomson,  grown  a  Benedict,  but  full  of  pleasant  antiquarian 
and  literary  talk  ;  Bell,  the  Professor  of  Civil  Law  ;  and  Sir  William 
Hamilton, t  the  man  of  all  knowledge  and  all  learning.  We  talked 
about  everything  ;  among  the  rest  of  phrenology,  which  they  treated 
with  little  ceremony,  and  spoke  slightingly  of  Combe.     Animal  mag- 

*  From  Lord  Holland  and  Sydney  Smith.  Lord  Jeffrey  and  John  Allen  had 
also  written  to  Mr.  Napier  on  the  subject.  Don  P.  de  Gayangos  wrote  the 
review. 

t  See  Vol  I.  p.  278,  and  note. 

X  The  distinguished  Professor  of  Logic  and  Metaphysics  of  the  University 
of  Edinburgh,  author  of  "Discussions  in  Philosophy,  Literature,"  etc. 


M.  46.]  SIR  CHARLES  BELL.  163 


netism,  too,  I  find,  is  "beginning  to  make  a  noise  here,  as  it  does  in 
London,  but  finds  less  favor.  Brougham  was  much  discussed  ;  and  it 
was  plain  he  has  great  authority  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review  "  because 
he  writes  so  much  and  so  well  for  it,  and  not  because  they  have  a 
great  respect  for  him  or  his  opinions.  Napier  avowed  openly,  that 
he  tried  very  hard  to  get  him  to  strike  out  the  passage  in  a  recent 
number  abusing  Lord  Melbourne,  but  could  not  succeed,  and  did  not 
seem  to  be  aware  that  he  ought  then  to  have  refused  the  article. 

Ainil  26.  —  We  had  a  visit  early  from  Lord  FuUerton,  who  off'ered 
again  to  go  wdth  us  about  the  town  ;  but  I  know  it  so  well  from  my 
former  long  visit,  that  I  did  not  think  it  quite  right  to  bore  him  to 
such  an  extent ;  and  so,  taking  a  few  directions  from  him,  we  sallied 
forth  again 

We  dined  at  Lord  Fullerton's,  where  we  met  Thomson  and  his 
wife,  Graham,  Sir  William  and  Lady  Hamilton,  Wilson,  and  two  or 
three  others.  Lord  Fullerton's  wife  is  a  beautiful  woman,  and  so  is 
his  eldest  daughter  ;  and  the  dinner  was  pleasant.  The  person  I.  was 
most  curious  about  was  Wilson,  the  successor  of  Dugald  Stewart,  and 
the  editor  of  "  Blackwood."  He  answered  much  to  the  idea  given  of 
him  among  the  roisterers  of  the  "  Noctes  Ambrosianse.'*  He  is  a  stout, 
coarse,  red-faced  person,  with  a  great  deal  of  red,  bushy  hair  flying 
about  his  face  and  shoulders,  taking  snuff  freely,  and  careless  in  his 
dress,  talking  brilliantly,  sometimes  petulantly,  and  once  or  twice 
savagely.     He  is  a  strange  person.     He  talks  of  coming  to  the  United 

States Boat-building  has  been  a  passion  with  him,  and  when 

he  lived  near  Bowness,  he  practised  it  a  good  deal.*  .... 

April  27.  —  We  drove  out  this  morning  to  see  my  old  friend  Mrs. 
Fletcher,  around  whom,  in  the  early  days  of  the  "  Edinburgh  Re- 
view," Brougham,  Jeffrey,  and  all  that  clique  were  gathered,  and 
whose  talents  still  command  their  admiration  and  reixard.  She  is 
living  with  her  daughter,  the  author  of  "  Concealment,"  at  the  little 

village  of  Duncliffe She  received  us  very  kindly,  and  talked 

most  agreeably,  so  agreeably  that  we  should  have  been  very  glad  to 
accept  more  of  her  hospitality,  if  our  time  would  have  permitted 

We  had  a  visit  from  the  Fullertons,  and  dined  at  Sir  Charles 
Bell's,  the  well-knovni  surgeon,  and  author  of  one  of  the  Bridge- 
water  Treatises.  Lady  Bell  is  quite  a  delightful  person,  and  must 
once  have  been  beautiful,  for  she  is  still  fine-looking  ;  and  Sir 
Charles,  though  beginning  to  grow  old,  is  fresh,  perfectly  preserved, 
and  abounding  in  pleasant  knowledge  and  accomplishment.     Sir  Wil- 

*  See  Vol.  I.  p.  278,  and  note. 


164  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1838. 

Ham  and  Lady  Hamilton  were  there  ;  Mrs.  McNeill,  wife  of  the  Brit- 
ish Ambassador  to  Persia,  whom  I  knew  in  London  and  Vienna  ;  and 
Wilson,  who  is  her  brother,  and  two  or  three  others.  I  think  it  was 
very  like  a  dinner  at  home.  Certainly  it  was  very  agreeable  ;  bnt  we 
stayed  much  later  than  we  should  have  done  in  America,  for  it  is  the 
way  here,  and  was  so  twenty  years  ago. 

April  28.  —  Our  friend  Mrs.  Alison,*  ....  whom  we  have  seen 
frequently  since  we  have  been  in  Edinburgh,  invited  us  to  go  with 
her  this  forenoon  to  see  Mrs.  Dugald  Stewart,  who  lives  quite  re- 
tired near  Leith.  We  found  her  much  broken,  but  still  as  lady-like 
and  gentle  as  ever,  and  with  one  of  those  beautiful  faces  of  old  age 
whose  beauty  consists  in  their  moral  expression.  Her  very  intelli- 
gent and  excellent  daughter  devotes  herself  wholly  to  her. 

We  dined  with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Ramsay  t  and  Mrs.  Ramsay  ;  the  latter 
being  our  old  Boston  acquaintance.  Miss  Cochrane.  Mr.  Sinclair  and 
Mr.  Territ,  the  two  preachers  in  the  old  church  that  was  Dr.  Alison's 
and  Dr.  Morehead's,  ....  were  of  the  party  ;  Miss  Sinclair,  the 
daughter  of  the  famous  Sir  John,  and  herself  an  authoress,  X  Mr. 
Forbes,  brother  of  the  late  Sir  William,  and  one  or  two  others,  were 
there. 

Forbes  is  an  intelligent,  spirited,  accomplished  gentleman,  upon 
whom  much  reliance  is  placed  that  the  Edinburgh  monument  to  Sir 
Walter  Scott  shall  be  what  it  ought  to  be  ;  but  the  rest  were  a  sort 
of  Tory  and  high  Orthodox  clique,  whose  talk  was  corresponding  to 
their  principles. 

Mr.  Ramsay  is  a  c|uiet,  hard-working  clergyman  of  the  principal 
Episcopal  church  in  Edinburgh ;  and  his  wife  is  a  truly  kind,  excel- 
lent, lady-like  person. 

April  29.  —  ....  It  was  our  last  day  in  Edinburgh,  and  we  gave 
it  to  the  Alisons,  who  had  invited  us  for  any  day  we  could  reserve  for 
them.  The  party  was  small,  but  very  agreeable,  —  Sir  Charles  and 
Lady  Bell,  Professor  Wilson,  Sir  W.  Hamilton,  young  Mr.  Gregory, 
brother  of  Mrs.  Alison  and  son  of  the  famous  Professor  Gresjorv. 
Miss  Alison,  daughter  of  the  old  Dr.  Alison,  —  a  very  uncommon  and 
striking  person,  who  devotes  herself  wholly  to  her  father,  —  came 
in  after  dinner.  We  all  stayed  late,  even  for  Edinburgh  ;  and  Sir 
William  Hamilton  came  home  with  us,  and  bade  us  farewell  in  the 
kindest  mamier,  on  our  doorsteps. 

*  Wlio  had  been  at  Edgeworthtown  in  1835. 

t  Dean  Ramsay,  author  of  "Reminiscences  of  Scottish  Life,"  etc. 

X  Authoress  of  "Modern  Accomplishments,"  "Modern  Society,"  etc. 


^.46.]  MAXWELLS  OF  TERREGLES.  1G5 

After  an  excursion  as  far  north  as  the  season  allowed,  and  a 
visit  of  one  night  at  Carstairs,  on  the  Clyde,  the  handsome  estab- 
lishment of  Mr.  Monteith,  the  party  arrived  on  the  5th  of  May 
at  Dumfries,  and  went  the  next  day  to  Terregles,  the  old  seat  of 
the  Maxwells  and  Earls  of  Nithsdale.  Here  they  were  expected 
by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Marmaduke  Maxwell,  old  acquaintances  of  the 
party  at  Wighill  Park  in  1835. 

It  is  one  of  those  ample  estates  with  a  large,  hospitable,  luxurious 
house  upon  it,  such  as  abound  through  the  whole  island.  Its  present 
possessor  is  Marmaduke  Constable  Maxwell,  and  the  estate  has  be- 
longed for  four  centuries  and  more  to  his  ancestors,  the  great  Maxwell 
family,  which  rose  on  the  fall  of  the  Douglases,  and  for  a  long  time 

was  the  most  powerful  family  in  all  the  South  of  Scotland 

For  a  long  period  they  were  the  proud  Earls  of  Nithsdale,  a  title 
which  was  forfeited,  ....  for  adherence  to  the  Stuarts,  in  1716.  For 
the  last  century  they  have  been  simply  the  retired,  rich  old  Catholic 
family  of  the  Maxwells.  When  we  arrived  the  brothers  "^  were  at  ser- 
vice in  their  own  chapel,  and  Mrs.  Maxwell,  who  is  a  Protestant,  re- 
ceived us.  She  is  little  altered  by  her  change  of  name  and  position, 
and  must  always  be  gentle  and  lady-like. 

The  brothers  came  soon  afterwards, — honest,  frank,  intelligent  men, 
just  in  the  prime  of  life,  —  and  with  them  was  Mr.  Weld,  another  rich 

Catholic,  somewhat  older,  and  brother  of  the  late  Cardinal  Weld 

Nobody  else  was  in  the  house  but  Mr.  Eeed,  a  Catholic  priest 

After  a  little  refreshment  we  walked  out  on  the  lawm  and  round  the 
park  and  some  of  the  grounds.  The  old  trees,  full  of  rooks,  were  wit- 
ness to  the  antiquity  of  the  family,  while  the  nice,  new  stone  cottages, 
which  are  necessarily  rented  at  a  rate  that  barely  pays  for  their  re- 
pairs, bore  no  less  witness  to  the  kindlmess  of  its  present  head. 

The  dinner  was  in  the  French  style,  and  very  luxurious  ;  after 
which  the  brothers,  who  hold  Sunday  to  be  a,  jour  clefete,  and  are  very 
fond  of  music,  played  on  a  fine  organ,  and  sang  glees  and  airs 

jVfay  7.  —  The  first  thing  this  morning,  after  a  luxurious  Scotch 
breakfast,  they  showed  us  some  of  the  curiosities  of  their  ancient 
house.  The  most  interesting,  if  not  the  most  remarkable,  was  the 
cloak  with  which  the  last  Countess  of  Nithsdale, 'in  1715,  cUsguised 

her  husband,  and  freed  him  from  the  Tower I  inquired  about 

this  extraordinary  woman,  and  find  they  have  a  good  many  memorials 

*  Mr.  Henry  Maxwell  was  staging  at  Terregles. 


166  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1838. 

and  letters  of  hers,  besides  the  delightful  one  that  records  the  story  of 
her  lord's  escape. 

The  other  very  curious  relic  they  showed  lis  was  a  prayer-book 
belonging  to  Mary  Queen  of  Scots.  The  family  were  at  all  times  her 
faithful  adherents,  and  just  before  she  left  Scotland  to  put  herself 
imder  the  protection  of  Elizabeth,  —  which  the  Maxwells  most  stren- 
uously resisted,  —  she  stayed  a  night  with  them,  and  in  the  morning, 
when  she  went  away,  left  this  prayer-book  as  a  keepsake. 

Having  showTi  us  these  and  other  curiosities,  Mrs.  Maxwell  pro- 
posed to  take  us  to  their  great  memorial,  the  ruins  of  Carlaverock 
Castle,  the  scene  of  their  family's  ancient  splendor,  and  not  only  so, 
but  the  scene  of  Allan  Cunningham's  Sir  Marmaduke  Maxwell,  and 
the  Ellaugowan  Castle,  of  Scott's  "Guy  Mannering."  We  gladly  con- 
sented, and,  driving  through  Dumfries,  went  down  through  a  fine 
country,  to  the  point  where  the  Nith  joins  the  Solway.  There  we 
found  these  grand  ruins,  standing  in  the  solitude  of  their  neglected 
old  age.  The  first  castle,  which  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  the  year 
1300,  has  left  few  or  no  proper  remains ;  the  present  widespread  ruing 
belong  to  the  castle  that  was  built  immediately  afterwards,  and  which 
was  maintained  till  it  was  taken  by  Cromwell,  who  could  not  prevail 
on  the  Earl  of  Nithsdale  to  surrender,  though  reduced  to  great  ex- 
tremity, until  he  had  the  written  orders  of  the  King  to  that  effect. 
....  The  ruins  are  finely  situated,  extensive,  and  picturesque,  and 
were  shown  to  us  by  an  old  warder,  —  maintained  there  by  the  Max- 
wells, —  now  eighty-three  years  old,  who  kept  a  school  in  the  village 
fifty-three  years,  and  who,  in  showing  them,  repeated  long  passages 
from  Grose,  ....  besides  fragments  from  Burns,  and  snatches  of 
old  poetry  in  honor  of  the  castle  and  the  family 

On  the  8th  of  May,  arriving  at  Keswick  :  — 

Sonthey  received  us  as  nsual,  in  his  nice  and  somewhat  peculiar 
library,  but  seemed  more  sad,  and  abstracted  even,  than  he  did  when 
we  last  saw  him.  One  of  his  daughters  only  was  at  home,  Bertha,  a 
very  pleasmg  person  ;  and  there  was,  besides,  Mrs.  Lovell,  the  sister  of 
his  late  wife,  and  a  Polish  Count,  a  very  intelligent  man,  who  seemed 

to  have  travelled  everywhere I  talked  chiefly  with  Southey 

himself,  who  seemed  to  like  to  be  apart  from  those  around  him,  and 
to  talk  in  a  very  low,  gentle  tone  of  voice.  He  showed  me  a  curi- 
ous letter  from  Brougham,  soon  after  he  became  Chancellor,  asking 
Southey's  advice  about  encouraging  literature  by  rewards  to  men  of 
letters  ;  and  his  answer,  saying  that  all  he  thought  desirable  was 


M.  46.]  KESWICK  AND  EYDAL.  167 

a  proper  copyright  law.  He  showed  me,  too,  some  curious  books, 
in  which  he  takes  great  delight,  and  with  Avhich  he  has  filled  his 
modest  house,  the  bedchambers,  staircases,  and  all.  But  his  interest 
in  all  things  seems  much  diminished,  and  I  left  him  with  sad  feel- 


mgs. 


May  9.  —  ....  We  were  expected  at  Wordsworth's,  and  were  most 
heartily  welcomed,  with  real  frank  kindness,  as  old  friends.  It  was 
nearly  their  dinner-time,  ....  and  we  took  the  meal  with  them.  It 
was  simple  as  possible,  ....  and  the  servants  took  our  places  when 
we  left  them,  and  dined  directly  after  us.  Afterwards  we  walked  an 
hour  ....  on  the  terrace,  and  through  the  little  grounds,  while  Mr. 
Wordsworth  explained  the  scenery  about  us,  and  repeated  passages  of 
his  poetry  relating  to  it.  Mrs.  Wordsworth  asked  me  to  talk  to  him 
about  finishing  the  Excursion,  or  the  Kecluse  ;  saying,  that  she  could 
not  bear  to  have  him  occupied  constantly  in  writing  sonnets  and 
other  trifles,  while  this  great  work  lay  by  him  nntouched,  but  that 
she  had  ceased  to  urge  him  on  the  subject,  because  she  had  done  it  so 
much  in  vain.  I  asked  him  about  it,  therefore.  He  said  that  the  In- 
troduction, which  is  a  sort  of  autobiography,  is  completed.  This  I 
knew,  for  he  read  me  large  portions  of  it  twenty  years  ago.  The  rest 
is  divided  into  three  parts,  the  first  of  which  is  partly  written  in  frag- 
ments, which  Mr.  Wordsworth  says  would  be  useless  and  unintelligi- 
ble in  other  hands  than  his  own  ;  the  second  is  the  Excursion  ;  and 
the  third  is  untouched.  On  my  asking  him  why  he  does  not  finish  it, 
he  turned  to  me  very  decidedly,  and  said,  "  Why  did  not  Gray  finish 
the  long  poem  he  began  on  a  similar  subject  ?  Because  he  found  he 
had  undertaken  something  beyond  his  powers  to  accomplish.  And 
that  is  my  case."  We  controverted  his  position,  of  course,  but  I  am 
not  certain  the  event  will  not  prove  that  he  has  acted  upon  his  belief. 
At  any  rate,  I  have  no  hope  it  will  ever  be  completed,  though  after 
his  death  the  world  will  no  doubt  have  much  more  than  it  now  pos- 
sesses. 

We  remained  two  or  three  hours  with  him  in  this  sort  of  talk,  and 
recollections  of  our  meetings,  ....  and  then  took  a  cheerful  leave 
of  him  and  Mrs.  Wordsworth,  feeling  that  we  left  true  friends  behind 
us,  even  if  we  never  see  them  again. 

After  passing  a  day  or  two  at  the  Dales',  near  INIanchester, 
where  they  were  most  kindly  invited  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  W.  E. 
Greg,  whose  acquaintance  they  had  made  in  Rome,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Ticknor  went  on  to  Oxford. 


168  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

May  15. — We  walked  about  in  a  beautiful  morning  among  the 
exquisite  gardens  and  the  grand  old  colleges  with  which  the  town  is 

filled It  is  such  a  pleasure  as  is  afforded  by  no  place  I  have 

ever  visited,  except  Oxford. 

When  we  came  home,  I  found  a  note  from  Buckland,  saying  he  was 
attending  a  meeting  of  the  Oxford  Gas  Company,  and  inviting  me  to 
his  lecture  at  two  o'clock.  So  a  little  before  two  I  went  to  his  lecture- 
room.  There  I  found  the  active  and  energetic  little  gentleman,  in  a 
short  jacket,  very  busy  in  nailing  up  maps,  plans,  aud  engravings,  and 
in  arranging  all  sorts  of  specimens  to  illustrate  his  subject.  He  seemed 
very  glad  to  see  me,  and  talked  as  hurriedly  as  ever  till  his  class  came 
in,  which  consisted  of  about  thirty-five  good-looking  young  men,  sev- 
eral of  whom  wore  the  nobleman's  go-^Ti  and  cap.  His  subject  was 
the  stratification  of  rocks,  and  his  manner  was  quite  easy  and  business- 
like  In  the  course  of  the  lecture  he  took  occasion  to  compli- 
ment Hitchcock,  and  Eaton,  another  American  geologist 

As  soon  as  he  could  leave  the  room,  he  was  hurried  away  to  preside 
at  a  meeting  held  to  organize  a  society  for  encouraging  the  cultivation 
of  bees,  for  he  is  the  centre  of  all  movement  and  activity  at  Oxford. 
He  asked  me  to  go  with  him,  and  I  soon  found  myself  in  the  midst 
of  a  collection  of  masters  of  colleges  and  their  wives,  ....  and  many 
of  the  principal  persons  at  Oxford,  assembled  by  the  zeal  of  one  of 
the  Fellows  of  Christ  Church,  —  Cotton,^  —  a  man  of  fortune,  who 
hopes  to  do  much  good  by  persuading  the  cottagers  of  the  country 
about  to  cultivate  bees.  Buckland  made  it  all  very  amusing,  .... 
and  everything  was  done  that  Mr.  Cotton  desired.  It  was  now  late. 
Bucldand  asked  me  to  go  home  and  dine  with  him,  but  I  was  very 
tired,  ....  and  came  back  to  the  comfort  and  quiet  of  our  excellent 
inn 

May  16.  —  I  breakfasted  with  Dr.  Buckland,  and  met  Dr.  Dun- 
can, one  of  the  principal  persons  at  the  meeting  yesterday  ;  Cotton  ; 
Peters,  the  principal  person  in  Merton  College  ;  the  Marquis  of 
Kildare  ;  Marryat,  a  dandy  brother  of  the  traveller  ;  and  one  or  two 
others.  We  had  a  lively  time  of  it  for  a  couple  of  hours,  and  Buck- 
land  finally  commended  me  to  Cotton  and  Peters,  saying  he  had  made 
the  breakfast  in  order  to  bring  me  acquainted  with  those  persons  Avho 
would  be  most  likelv  to  be  agreeable  and  useful  to  me  in  Oxford. 

Cotton  went  with  me  at  once  to  the  Bodleian,  where  I  wished  to 
make  some  researches  and  inquiries,  and  where  he  is  himself  employed 
on  a  manuscript  of  St.  Chrysostom,  and  presented  me  to  Dr.  Bandinel, 

*  W.  C.  Cotton  afterguards  -went  to  New  Zealand  with  Bishop  Selwyn. 


M.  46.]  BODLEIAN  LIBRARY.  1G9 

the  j^riiicipal  libraiian.  I  was  struck  with  the  name,  and  found  he  is 
of  an  Italian  stock,  and  claims  to  be  descended  from  Bandinelli,  the 
Italian  novelliere.  At  any  rate,  he  is  a  pleasant,  kindly  person,  and 
has  more  bibliographical  knowledge  than  anybody  I  have  met  with 

in  England,  except  Hallam I  was  curious  for  old  Spanish 

books,  but  the  Bodleian,  vast  as  it  is,  and  even  with  Douce's  rare  col- 
lection added  to  it,  making  in  all  nearly  half  a  million  volumes,  is  yet 
miserably  deficient  in  Spanish  literature I  was  much  disap- 
pointed, for  I  thought  I  should  have  found  a  great  deal  in  odd  cor- 
ners; but  Bandinel  evidently  had  the  whole  collection  by  heart,  just 
as  Von  Praet  used  to  have  the  Royal  Library  at  Paris,  and  he  could 
find  nothing  really  rare  or  valuable. 

I  went  afterwards  with  Cotton  to  Peters  at  Merton,  and  went  over 
his  fine  old  College,  with  its  curious  and  strange  library,  where  some 
of  the  books  are  still  chained,  and  the  arrangement  is  much  the  same 
as  in  the  Laurentian  at  Florence,  both  belonging  to  nearly  the  same 
period 

May  17.  —  I  breakfasted  this  morning  with  Cotton,  in  his  nice  suite 
of  rooms  in  Christ  Church,  and  met  there  Peters,  Bunsen,  —  son  of  my 
old  friend,  the  Prussian  Minister,  who  is  here  preparing  himself  for  the 
English  Church,  —  and  two  or  three  others.  It  was  a  favorable  and 
agreeable  specimen  of  the  University  life,  something  too  luxurious, 
perhaps,  but  still  it  was  plain  there  was  a  good  deal  of  learning  and 
literary  taste  among  them 

At  two  o'clock  I  went  again  to  Buckland's  lecture In  the 

course  of  his  remarks,  he  said  America  could  never  be  a  manufacturing 
country  without  coal  in  great  quantities.  After  he  had  finished,  I 
told  him  we  depended  on  water-power,  of  which  we  had  great  abun- 
dance. He  said  he  thought  that  would  not  be  sufiicient,  as  it  was 
frozen  up  five  months  in  the  year.  I  set  him  right  about  this  also. 
He  seemed  surprised,  but  took  it  all  well,  better  than  most  professional 
men  would  have  done.  I  dined  with  him,  and  met  a  brother  of 
Denison,  a  man  of  fortune,  who  lives  at  Shotover,  —  Milton's  Shot- 
over,  —  Dr.  McBride,  Dr.  Hawkins,  and  some  others  of  the  masters  of 
colleges,  and  Dr.  Bandinel.  It  was  a  genuinely  academic  dinner,  and 
things  had  much  less  the  air  of  the  world  than  they  had  at  Cambridge, 
compared  with  which,  no  doubt,  Oxford  is  a  very  monastic  place.  But 
it  was  pleasant  and  good-natured.  Their  talk  was  of  books  and  geol- 
ogy, of  the  church,  and  such  things. 

Alay  18. — Cotton  invited  the  ladies  to  breakfast  with  him  this  morn- 
ing, and  in-vited  two  or  three  persons  to  meet  them,  among  the  rest  a 

VOL.  II.  8 


170  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

H  IVIr.  Ruskin,  who  has  one  of  the  most  beautiful  collections  of  sketches, 
made  by  himself,  from  nature,  on  the  Continent,  I  have  ever  seen. 
The  whole  affair  was  tasteful  and  pleasant,  and  very  luxurious  for 
cloisters,  certainly 

Althorp,  May  19.  —  The  approach  to  Althorp  is  through  a  fine, 
rich,  and  broken  comitry,  and  the  moment  we  had  passed  the  porter's 
lodge  we  felt  the  quietness  and  comfortable  repose  that  come  over 
one  in  these  rich,  aristocratic  establishments.  The  grounds  of  the 
park  are  uneven  and  beautiful  in  their  variety,  and  such  rich  clumps 
and  copses  of  venerable  oak  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  else- 
where. The  house  is  large,  but  not  remarkable  ;  but  the  moment  we 
entered  it  we  recognized  the  superb  staircase  that  figures  in  Dibdin. 
....  Lord  Spencer  had  gone  to  Northampton  to  attend  a  meeting 
of  the  justices,  which  the  best  of  the  nobility  are  anxious  never  to 
miss.  I  asked  if  anybody  was  stopping  in  the  house,  and  was  glad  to 
hear  there  was  not,  but  that  Mr.  Appleyard,  the  last  Earl's  librarian, 
and  who  knows  the  library  better  than  anybody  else  alive,  was  ex- 
pected to-night  ;  a  most  agreeable  attention,  as  I  afterwards  found,  on 
the  part  of  Lord  Spencer,  who  had  him  down  from  London  for  the 
express  purpose  of  showing  the  rarities  to  us.  We  went  to  our  rooms, 
and,  in  the  peculiar  English  phrase,  "made  ourselves  comfortable" 
amidst  their  manifold  luxuries. 

Soon  afterwards  Lord  Spencer  came  home  dripping,  for  it  rained 
hard,  and,  like  a  true  country  gentleman,  he  was  on  horseback.  He 
sent  his  compliments  to  us,  ...  .  and  when  we  went  down  to  dinner 
....  we  found  him  as  good,  frank,  and  kindly  as  we  had  found  him 
at  Went  worth,  three  years  ago.  The  dinner  ....  was  made  agree- 
able by  his  conversation,  which  was  uncommonly  free,  as  if  he  were 
not  afraid  or  unwilling  to  say  what  he  thought  about  anybody  ;  but 
his  good-nature  makes  him  charitable,  and  his  honesty  is  proverbial. 
....  Lord  Spencer  went  on  with  an  admirable  series  of  stories  and 
sketches  of  Pitt,  whom  he  knew  much  in  his  early  manhood,  when 
his  father  was  Pitt's  first  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  ;  of  Sheridan,  who 
was  associated  with  his  own  earlier  friends  ;  and  of  Brougham,  from 
whom  he  has  now  separated  himself,  but  who  was  long  his  very  inti- 
mate companion,  if  not  friend. 

Pitt  he  described  as  more  successful  and  less  good-natured  in  con- 
versation than  I  had  supposed  him,  and  particularly  as  liking  to  make 
some  one  in  his  company  his  hiitt,  in  a  way  that  was  neither  consist- 
ent with  good  taste  nor  very  good  manners  ;  but  which  he  said  made 
him,  as  a  boy,  delight  to  be  in  Pitt's  society. 


M.  46.]  ALTHORP.  171 

Sheridan  he  undervalued,  I  thmk,  and  especially  placed  his  con- 
versation quite  low ;  and  Brougham  he  thought,  since  he  became  Chan- 
cellor, had  been  misconducting  nearly  the  whole  time.  He  said  that 
within  his  own  knowledge  it  had  been  determined,  when  Lord  Mel- 
bourne took  office  the  second  time,  that  Brougham  should  be  left  out, 
on  the  ground  that  he  would  do  more  injury  to  the  administration  as  a 
member  of  it,  than  as  an  opponent ;  that  Brougham,  however,  persisted 
in  believing  that  he  had  been  rejected  by  the  King  personally  ;  that  he 
—  Lord  Spencer  —  had  tried  to  undeceive  him  twice,  but  that  Brough- 
am would  not  be  approached  on  the  subject,  and  that  when  the  Queen 
came  in  and  he  could  no  longer  doubt  why  he  was  excluded  from  the 
Ministry,  he  took  the  unprincipled  and  violent  course  he  has  pursued 
ever  since.  Lord  Spencer  looks  upon  him  as  politically  ruined.  He 
talked,  too,  a  good  deal  about  himself,  and  explained  the  circum- 
stances under  which  he  took  office  with  Lord  Grey,  and  how  he  car- 
ried it  as  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  without  being  able  to 
make  a  speech.  It  was  all  very  curious  and  interesting  ;  for,  though 
he  does  not  talk  fluently  or  gracefully,  he  is  full  of  facts,  from  an  ex- 
perience and  familiarity  with  whatever  has  been  most  distinguished 
in  affairs  or  society  for  the  last  thirty-five  years,  and  his  fairness  and 
honesty  are  so  sure  that  you  can  trust  implicitly  to  his  statements. 
"We  sat,  therefore,  late  with  him,  and  went  to  bed  reluctantly. 

Maij  20.  —  We  walked  to  church,  about  a  mile  through  the  park. 
....  Lord  Spencer  told  me  that  his  family  was  originally  from 
"Warwickshire,  where  they  still  possess  estates,  and  that  they  removed 

to  Althorp  in  the  time  of  Henry  VII It  is  the  fashion,  he 

added,  to  hold  only  by  annual  leases  in  this  part  of  the  country, 
but  there  are  several  families  on  the  estate  who  have  been  there  by 
annual  renewals  of  their  rent-holds  from  the  time  when  the  Spencers 
first  came  here  ;  a  fact  very  remarkable  in  itself,  and  very  creditable 
to  both  parties 

When  we  had  lunched,  Mr.  Appleyard  and  Lord  Spencer  began  in 
earnest  to  show  us  the  library,  and  taking  us  to  the  beautiful  room 
built  by  the  late  Earl,  and  called  the  Poet's  Library,  where  the  most 
splendid  books  are  collected,  they  took  dowTi  successively  some  of  the 
most  magnificent  works  of  art,  of  the  sort,  that  I  ever  beheld.  Among 
them  were  the  original  drawings  for  the  Magna  Charta,  that  was  pub- 
lished some  years  since ;  those  for  the  coronation  of  George  lY. ;  and  the 
outlines  of  Flaxman  for  iEschylus,  interleaved  in  a  beautiful  copy  of 
the  original,  and  presented  to  the  late  Countess  Spencer  by  Flaxman, 
with  a  manuscript  inscription.   The  large  paper  copies  of  books  in  this 


172  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 


room  are  extraordinary,  both  for  their  beauty  aiid  number,  especially 
the  folios  ;  and  the  binding  of  all  the  books,  without  being  showy,  is 

as  rich  and  solid  as  money  could  make  it In  the  Long  Library 

is  a  cabinet  containing  the  Historical  Plays  of  Shakespeare,  illustrated 
by  Lady  Lucan,  Lord  Spencer's  grandmother.  I  looked  there  among 
the  early  Italian  and  English  books,  where  almost  nothing  was  want- 
ing that  could  be  asked  after  or  thought  of. 

The  whole  number  of  volumes  in  the  library  is  about  110,000,  no 
doubt  the  finest  private  library  in  the  world,  and  all  collected  by 
the  late  Earl.  The  collection  of  rarities  is  said  to  have  cost  above 
£  200,000.  And  so  the  present  Earl  finds  it  expedient  to  economize, 
which  he  does  very  cheerfully.  ....  He  refused  to  let  his  father  re- 
trench, saying  that  he  would  do  all  that  was  necessary  to  restore  the 
estate,  which,  to  be  sure,  is  not  much  encumbered In  the  sa- 
loon, after  dinner,  we  had  a  succession  of  curious  things  brought  to 
us  from  the  library,  sketches  by  the  old  masters,  illuminated  books, 
etc.,  which  occupied  us  till  nine  o'clock,  ....  when  Lord  Spencer 
read  prayers  in  the  dining-hall  to  the  whole  family.  It  was  a 
very  solemn  scene,  and  became  well  the  man  and  his  position  in  so- 
ciety  

May  21.  —  Immediately  after  prayers  and  breakfast  Lord  Spencer 
invited  us  to  take  a  walk  and  see  the  place.  "We  went  first  to  the 
village,  ....  afterwards  to  the  church,  which  can  Ije  traced  back  tx) 
the  fourteenth  century,  which,  with  its  graveyard,  is  a  picturesque  ob- 
ject on  all  sides.  In  one  of  the  chapels,  or  chancels,  the  Spencers  lie 
buried,  from  soon  after  1500  to  the  last  Earl  and  Countess. 

The  park  is  the  same  John  Evelyn  describes,  and  different  monu- 
ments in  it,  from  1567,  show  when  different  woods,  still  subsisting, 
were  planted,  and  by  whom It  is,  too,  the  scene  of  Ben  Jon- 
son's  beautiful  masque  "  The  Satyr/'  which  was  performed  amidst 
its  shrubbery  when  the  Queen  and  son  of  James  I.  were  entertained 
here  on  their  way  to  London  in  1603. 

Indeed,  Althorp  has  always  been  poetic  ground ;  .  .  .  .  but,  as  Gib- 
bon says,  the  brightest  jewel  in  the  coronet  of  the  Spencers  is  the 
Faery  Queen Our  walk,  which  did  not  seem  long.  Lord  Spen- 
cer told  us  had  extended  above  five  miles. 

When  we  were  rested  we  went  to  look  at  the  pictures "We  had 

been  constantly  seeing  in  the  dining-hall,  saloon,  and  library,  works 
of  art,  such  as  the  famous  Rembrandt's  Mother,  the  fragment  of  a 
cartoon  bv  Raffaelle  on  the  murder  of  the  Innocents,  two  or  three 
portraits  by  Titian,  etc.,  ....  a  collection  of  perhaps  an  hundred  pic- 


^.46.]  RARE  BOOKS.  ^  173 

tares  in  all,  that  place  it  among  the  best  in  England.  But  we  went 
now  to  see  the  family  portraits  on  the  grand  staircase  and  gallery,  a 
crowd  of  Vandykes,  Sir  Peter  Lelys,  and  Sir  Joshuas,  with  now  and 
then  a  Holbein,  and  one  Pompeo  Battoni 

We  lunched,  and  then  Lord  Spencer  gave  us  over  to  the  librarian 
to  show  us  the  rarities  of  the  library,  the  incunabula,  the  unique  cop- 
ies, and  the  other  curiosities  for  which  the  late  Earl  spent  such  in- 
credible sums  of  money The  series  to  illustrate  the  earliest 

history  of  printing  down  to  the  first  book  printed  with  a  date  —  the 
Psalter  of  1457  —  is,  I  suppose,  the  most  complete  in  the  world,  cer- 
tainly the  most  complete  I  have  ever  seen. 

Afterwards  there  is  only  an  embarras  de  richesses,  but  I  occupied 
myself  chiefly  with  the  earliest  specimens  of  the  English  press,  and 
especially  the  English  poets,  where,  again,  nothing  seemed  wanting. 
Of  course  we  stared  at  the  famous  Valdarfer  Boccaccio,  1471,  which 
was  sold,  in  1812,  at  the  Koxburgh  auction,  for  £  2,260,  and  which  was 
sold  again  in  1819,  at  the  sale  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough's  —  Marquis 
of  Blandford's  White  Knight's  —  library,  for  £918.16  ;  both  prices,  I 
suppose,  unexampled  in  their  absurdity.  Lord  Spencer  told  me  two 
odd  facts  about  it :  that  Lord  Blandford  was  not  worth  a  sou  when 
he  bought  it,  and  yet  had  given  orders  to  go  up  to  ,£5,000  for  it,  and 
was  obliged  to  leave  it  in  the  auctioneer's  hands  above  a  year,  before 
lie  could  raise  the  money  to  pay  for  it ;  and  that  the  last  purchaser  was 
Longman,  against  whom  Lord  Spencer,  when  he  found  out  who  his 
competitor  was,  would  not  bid,  because  he  thought  it  was  improper 
for  his  own  bookseller  to  run  him  up,  and  of  whom  he  would  not 
afterwards  buy  it  at  any  advance,  because  he  would  not  suffer  him  to 
profit  by  his  interference.  The  book  is  certainly  a  great  curiosity,  but 
it  is  made  so  chiefly  by  the  folly  of  those  who  have  owned  it  and  those 
who  have  written  about  it. 

We  had  a  most  pleasant  dinner  and  evening.  Lord  Spencer  telling 
us  a  great  many  anecdotes  of  Lord  Brougham,  illustrating  the  incon- 
sistency and  unprincipledness  of  his  course  since  he  ceased  to  be  Lord 

Chancellor I  was  sorry  to  break  off  such  talk  and  go  to  bed, 

for  it  was  the  last  evening  we  could  give  to  Althorp,  where  we  cer- 
tainly have  been  most  kindly  received,  and  where  we  have  enjoyed  a 
great  deal.  But,  as  Sancho  says,  "  there  is  an  end  to  e.verything  but 
death." 

On  this  Sunday  passed  at  Althorp,  Mr.  Ticknor  Avrote  the  fol- 
lowing letter :  — 


174  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 


.To  Miss  Maria  Edgeworth,  Edgeworthtown. 

Althorp  Park,  Northampton,  May  20,  1838. 
My  dear  Miss  Edgeworth,  —  It  is  seldom  the  lot  of  a  letter  to 
give  so  mucli  pleasure  and  so  much  pain  as  did  the  one  we  have  quite 
lately  received  from  you,  —  so  much  pleasure  from  the  kindness  it 
expresses  toward  us  and  our  children,  in  the  renewal  of  your  invita- 
tion to  Ireland,  and  the  words  in  which  you  renew  it,  —  so  much  pain 
because  we  cannot  accept  it.*  It  is  truly  a  grief  to  us ;  and  I  do  not 
feel  sure  you  had  a  right  to  make  it  so  heavy  ;  and  yet  I  would  not, 
for  much,  part  with  one  of  the  kind  phrases  that  constitute  its  weight. 
The  fact  is,  we  have  talked  a  great  deal  about  another  \isit  to  Ireland, 
which  with  us  is  another  name  for  Edgeworthtown.  When  w^e  first 
had  the  happiness  of  seeing  you,  we  felt  pretty  sure  of  it ;  for  we 
thought  then  we  should  remain  four  years  in  Europe.  But  of  late  we 
have  changed  our  purpose.  Mrs.  Ticknor,  for  whose  health  I  came 
abroad,  has  long  been  quite  well  and  strong.  My  eldest  daughter, 
who  is  now  fifteen,  needs  to  be  at  Jiome,  where  she  is  destined  to  live, 
and  cannot  have  what  the  French  call  une  existence  comjolete  any 
longer  in  lands  of  strangers.  The  youngest  cannot  be  anything  but  a 
plaything  while  she  is  all  the  time  in  hotels,  and  at  five  she  must 
begin  to  be  something  more  serious.  And  I  feel,  myself,  that  I  have 
duties  to  perform  which  are  not  on  this  side  the  great  waters.  So  we 
are  going  home.  I  will  not  even  disguise  from  you  that  some  of  us 
are  very  anxious  to  do  so,  and  even  a  little  homesick  withal.  But 
still  we  leave  many  things,  many  friends  behind  us  to  regret,  and 
when  I  say  that  there  is  not,  among  them  all,  anything  we  shall  more 
regret  than  not  being  able  to  make  you  another  visit  at  Edgeworth- 
tovm,  I  shall  only  repeat  what  was  our  first  remark  at  Kome  when 
we  began  to  talk  of  shortening  our  absence,  and  what  we  have  re- 

*  We  give  a  part  of  the  letter  from  Miss  Edgeworth,  to  which  the  above  is  an 
answer  :  "  We  are  very  eager,  very  anxious,  to  see  you  again  at  our  own  home, 
retired  and  homely  as  it  is.  You  flattered  us  you  were  happy  here  during  the 
two  short  days  you  gave  us.  0,  pray  !  jorai/  f  come  to  us  again  before  you  go 
from  our  world  forever,  — at  least,  from  me  forever.     Consider  my  age  !  and 

Mrs.  Mary  Sneyd  begs  you  to  consider  her.     I  trust  you  will Be  pleased, 

my  dear  friends,  to  like  or  to  love  us  all  as  much  as  ever  you  can,  and  pray 
prove  to  us  that  you  will  take  as  much  trouble  to  come  to  Edgeworthtown,  after 
having  become  acquainted  with  us,  as  you  took  when  you  only  knew  the  au- 
thorship part  of 

"  Your  affectionate  friend, 

*'Maeia  Edgeworth." 


M.  46.]  LORD  BROUGHAM.  175 

peated  a  great  many  times  when  we  have  spoken  of  it  since.  We 
shall  think  of  you  much  when  we  pass  the  bright  coasts  of  your  island 
in  June  ;  we  shall  think  of  you  still  more  when  we  are  amidst  our 
own  home,  and  always  with  great  pleasure  and  much  gratitude 

In  Scotland  we  saw  the  Alisons  often,  and  it  brought  us  near  to 
you  ;  for  you  may  remember  that  it  was  under  your  hospitable  roof 
we  made  their  agreeable  acquaintance.  We  saw,  too,  Abbotsford, 
which  is  still  more  intimately  associated  with  you  in  our  minds.  But 
I  cannot  tell  you  how  sad  a  place  it  is,  so  deserted,  so  cold,  so  full  of 
heart-rending  recollections  and  memorials.  We  did  not  feel  half  so 
bad  when  we  stood  by  its  master's  grave  at  Dryburgh.  Indeed,  I 
almost  wish  it  were  burnt  up,  or  destroyed  in  some  way,  for  it  is  a 
monument  of  the  weakest  part  of  Sir  Walter's  character  ;  that  love  of 
a  magnificence  beyond  his  means,  which,  by  causing  his  pecuniary 
embarrassments,  caused  his  premature  death.  It  is  altogether  a  most 
painful,  melancholy  place.  The  very  air  seemed  oppressive  as  we 
went  through  it 

And  now,  farewell.  I  do  not  despair  of  seeing  you  in  the  course  of 
this  world's  chances  and  changes  yet  once  more,  for  there  is  a  greater 
chance  that  I  shall  be  in  Europe  three  times  now,  than  there  was 
originally  that  I  should  come  once.     So,  I  still  say  au  revoir. 

Yours  faithfully  and  affectionately, 

G.    TiCKXOR. 

Eeaching  London  on  the  2 2d  of  May,  Mr.  Ticknor  was  again 
plunged,  for  two  weeks,  into  the  excitements  of  "the  season." 
On  the  day  after  his  arrival  he  received  and  paid  some  visits, 
and  thus  describes  Lord  Brougham :  — 

He  has  gained  a  good  deal  of  flesh  since  I  knew  him  in  1818-19, 
and  is  even  improved  in  that  particular  since  I  saw  him  at  York 
three  years  ago.  But  in  other  respects  I  do  not  think  he  is  changed 
for  the  better.     He  showed  a  very  disagreeable  disposition  when  he 

spoke  of  Jeffrey  and  Empson It  was  really  ungentlemanlike 

and  coarse  to  speak  as  he  did,  of  two  persons  who  were  formerly  his 
associates,  and  are  still,  in  all  respects  of  general  intercourse,  his 
equals.  What  struck  me  most,  however,  was  his  marvellous  memory. 
He  remembered  where  I  lodged  in  London  in  1819,  on  what  occa- 
sions he  came  to  see  me,  and  some  circumstances  about  my  attend- 
ance on  the  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  Education  ;  which 
I  had  myself  forgotten,  till  he  recalled  them  to  me.     Such  a  memory, 


176  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

for  sucli  mere  trifles,  seems  almost  incredible.  But  Niebiihr  had  it ; 
so  had  Scott,  and  so  has  Humboldt  ;  four  examples  —  including 
Brougham  —  which  are  remarkable  enough.  I  doubt  not  that  much 
of  the  success  of  each  depended  on  this  extraordinary  memory,  which 
holds  everything  in  its  grasp. 

I  dined  with  the  Geological  Club,  and  afterwards  attended  a  meet- 
ing of  the  Geological  Society We  sat  down  to  table  nearly  thirty 

strong  ;  "Whewell  of  Cambridge,  the  President  of  the  Society,  in  the 
chair,  and  Stokes,  the  witty  lawyer,  as  its  Vice-President.  Among 
the  persons  present  were  Sedgwick  and  Buckland,  Murchison,  Lord 
Cole,  Mr.  Ponsonby,  the  Marquess  of  Northampton,  Babbage,  Hallam, 
and  especially  Sir  John  Herschel,  just  returned  from  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  decidedly  at  this  moment  the  lion  of  London.  I  sat 
between  Sir  John  and  Babbage,  and  had  an  excellent  time.  Sir  John 
is  a  small  man,  and,  I  should  think,  a  little  more  than  fifty  years  old, 
and  growing  gray  ;  very  quiet  and  unpretending  in  his  manner,  and 
though  at  first  seeming  cold,  getting  easily  interested  in  whatever  is 
going  forward 

At  half  past  eight  we  adjourned  in  mass,  after  a  very  lively  talk, 
from  the  tavern,  which  was  the  well-known  "  Cro\^'n  and  Anchor,"  in 
the  Strand,  to  the  Geological  Booms  at  Somerset  House Sedg- 
wick read  a  synopsis  of  the  stratified  rocks  of  Great  Britain  ;  an  excel- 
lent, good-humored  extemporaneous  discussion  followed,  managed 
with  much  spirit  by  Greenough,  the  first  President,  and  founder  of  the 
Society  ;  Murchison  ;  Lyell,  the  well-known  author  ;  Stokes  ;  Buck- 
land  ;  and  Phillips  of  York 

May  24.  —  Dined  at  Holland  House,  with  Lady  Fitzpatrick,  i\Ir. 
Akerley,  —  who  has  done  such  good  service  as  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  the  Poor-Laws,  —  Lord  Shelburne,  Sir  James  Kempt, — 
who  is  thankful  to  be  no  longer  Governor-General  of  Canada, — 
Lord  John  Russell,  Allen,  and  two  others.  It  was  a  pleasure  to 
dine  in  that  grand  old  Gilt  Room,  with  its  two  ancient,  deep  fire- 
places, and  to  hear  Lord  Holland's  genial  talk,  for  I  cannot  help 
agreeing  with  Scott,  that  he  is  the  most  agreeable  man  I  have  ever 
known.  The  reason,  I  apprehend,  is,  that  to  the  great  resources  of 
his  knowledge  he  adds  a  laissez-aller,  arising  from  his  remarkable 
good-nature,  which  is  quite  irresistible.  We  passed  the  evening  in 
the  great  library,  Addison's  picture-gallery,  one  of  the  most  luxurious 
and  agreeable  spots  in  the  world.  I  talked  a  good  deal  with  Sir  J. 
Kempt  about  the  Canadas,  which  he  seems  to  regard  much  as  we  do 
in  the  United  States,  and  condemns  —  as  Lord  Holland  did  plainly  — 


M.  46.]  MR.   THOMAS  GRENVILLE.  177 


the  whole  course  of  Sir  Francis  Head,  as  far  as  the  United  States  are 
concerned.  He  had  intended  to  ask  Head  to  dine  to-day,  and  as  I 
expressed  a  good  deal  of  regret  that  I  had  not  seen  him,  he  said  he 
would  invite  him  soon,  and  let  me  know  when  he  would  come  ;  hut 
seemed  a  little  surprised  that  I  should  be  j)leased  to  meet  one  who 
had  just  been  abusing  my  country  so  thoroughly,  confessing,  at  last, 
that  he  had  omitted  him  to-day,  thinking  I  might  be  unwilling  to 
meet  him. 

Lady  Holland,  I  really  think,  made  an  effort  to  be  agreeable,  and 
she  certainly  has  power  to  be  so  when  she  chooses  ;  but  I  think  I 
could  never  like  her. 

May  25.  —  Began  the  morning  with  a  long  and  most  agreeable  visit 
from  Sedgwick  of  Cambridge,  one  of  those  visits  which  are  only 
made  in  England,  I  think,  and  there  only  when  people  take  some 

liking  to  one  another Few  men,  anywhere,  are  so  bright  and 

active-minded  as  this  most  popular  of  the  English  professors. 

Afterwards  I  went  by  appointment  to  see  old  Mr.  Thomas  Gren- 
ville,  elder  brother  of  the  late  Lord  Grenvdlle,  and  uncle  of  the  present 
Duke  of  Buckingham.  He  was  one  of  the  negotiators  of  our  treaty 
of  1783,  and  was  first  Lord  of  the  Admiralty  ;  but  retired  from 
affairs  many  years  ago,  on  the  ground  that  he  preferred  quietness  and 
literary  occupation  to  anything  else.  A  few  years  ago  he  declined  an 
addition  of  ^10,000  a  year  to  his  large  fortune,  saying  he  had  enough, 
and  that  he  preferred  "  it  should  go  on  "  —  as  he  expressed  it  —  to 
the  next  generation  that  would  be  entitled. 

He  is  now  nearly  eighty-four  years  old,  and  lives  in  that  old,  aristo- 
cratic quarter,  St.  James's  Square,  next  to  Stafford  House.  He  is 
admirably  preserved  for  his  age,  and  took  apparent  pleasure  in  show- 
ing me  his  library,  about  which  Lord  Spencer  had  written  to  him, 
askincj  kim  to  show  it  to  me. 

It  consists  of  twenty-two  thousand  volumes  ;  but  what  is  remark- 
able about  it  is,  that  not  only  is  every  book  in  rich,  solid,  tasteful 
binding,  but  it  may  almost  be  said  that  every  book  is  in  some  way 
or  other  a  rarity,  if  not  by  the  small  nimiber  of  copies  known  to  ex- 
ist of  it,  at  least  by  something  peculiar  in  some  other  way.  Such 
beautiful  miniatures  I  never  saw  before  in  books,  as  in  two  or  three 
that  he  showed  me  ;  and  in  individual  case^,  for  ins.tance  Milton  and 
Cervantes,  his  collection  of  the  original  editions  is  absolutely  com- 
plete, which  I  have  never  seen  elsewhere.  Of  course  it  is  not  to  be 
compared  to  the  library  at  Althorp,  though  even  there  it  would  fre- 
quently fill  gaps  ;  but  take  it  altogether,  —  the  library,  its  owner,  and 

8*  I- 


178  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  P-S38. 

his  house,  —  it  is  one  of  the  most  perfect,  consistent,  and  satisfactory 
thm<?s  I  have  ever  seen 

May  26.  — ....  To  Mortimer  House  to  dine  with  Lord  Fitzwilliam. 
Besides  the  family,  there  was  the  Bishop  of  Hereford,  —  Musgrave,  — 
the  Bishop  of  Durham,  —  Maltby,  —  Sedgwick,  Lord  and  Lady  Rad- 
nor, and  Miss  Bouverie,  —  their  pretty  daughter,  —  Lord  Brougham, 
and  Dr.  Birkbeck,  the  father  of  Mechanics'  Institutes  and  popular  lec- 
turing.   He  is  a  nice,  round,  w\arm  old  gentleman Sedgwick  was 

eminently  agreeable,  as  he  always  is  ;  and  Brougham  was  violent  and 
outrageous,  extremely  rude  and  offensive  to  Maltby  and  Sedgwick, 
but  very  civil  to  Lady  Charlotte  and  Lady  Radnor.  I  never  saw  any- 
body so  rude  in  respectable  society  in  my  life.  Some  laughed,  some 
looked  sober  about  it,  but  all  thought  it  was  outrageous.  Sedgwick 
was  the  only  person  Avho  rebuked  him,  and  he  did  it  in  a  maim.er 
rather  too  measured  and  moderate  for  my  taste 

About  eleven  o'clock  we  got  away  from  Lord  Fitzwilliam's  and 
went  to  Mr.  Babbage's,  w^ho,  at  this  season,  gives  three  or  four  routs 
on  successive  weeks.  It  was  very  crowded  to-night,  and  very  brill- 
iant ;  for  among  the  people  there  were  Hallam,  Milman  and  his  pretty 
wife  ;  the  Bishop  of  Norwich,  —  Stanley,  —  the  Bishop  of  Hereford, 
—  Musgrave,  —  both  the  Hellenists  ;  Rogers,  Sir  J.  Herschel  and 
his  beautiful  wife,  Sedgwick,  Mrs.  Somerville  and  her  daughters. 
Senior,  the  Taylors,  Sir  F.  Chantrey,  Jane  Porter,  Lady  Morgan,  and 
I  know  not  how  many  others.  We  seemed  really  to  know  as  many 
people  as  we  should  in  a  party  at  home,  which  is  a  rare  thing  in  a 
strange  capital,  and  rarest  of  all  in  this  vast  overgrown  London.  Not- 
withstanding, therefore,  our  fatiguing  day,  we  enjoyed  it  very  much. 

May  27.  —  To-day  being  Sunday,  we  have  kept  as  quiet  as  we 

could,  refusing  invitations In  the  afternoon  we  had  a  very 

long  and  agreeable  visit  from  Rogers,  who  showed  great  sensibility 
when  speaking  of  his  last  visit  to  Scott,  which  he  said  he  was  obliged 
to  shorten  in  order  to  keep  an  appointment  with  other  friends,  and 
then  added  —  as  if  the  thought  had  just  rushed  upon  him,  and  filled 
his  eyes  with  tears,  —  "  and  they  too  are  dead."  It  was  some  time 
before  he  could  command  himself  enough  to  speak  again. 

"While  we  were  at  dinner  Senior  came  in,  and  stayed  with  us  very 
agreeably,  having  come  to  ask  us  to  dine  with  them  some  day  before 
we  go  ;  but  we  have  none  left. 

May  28.  -r-  .  .  .  .  On  our  return  home  we  had  visits  from  the  Misses 
Luxmoore*  and  their  brother,  the  Dean  of  St.  Asaph,  ....  who 

*  To  whom  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ticknor  had  made  a  visit  in  Wales  in  1835. 


-E.  46.]  LONDON  DINNERS.  179 

have  taken  a  Louse  for  a  few  weeks  to  enjoy  London,  and  from  the 
pretty  j\Irs.  Milman,  whose  kind  and  urgent  invitations  to  dinner  we 
were  really  sorry  to  refuse.     After  they  were  gone  we  went  to  visit 

Lady    Mulgrave,   who   is   just  arrived   from  Ireland She  is 

"  fair,  hit,  and  forty,"  I  should  think  ;  but  she  has  a  certain  sort  of 
beauty  still,  most  sweet  and  winning  manners,  and  a  great  deal  of 
tact  and  intelligence.  She  is  fit  to  be  a  queen,  every  inch.  Indeed, 
all  these  Eavensworths  are  remarkable  people.  Scott's  visit  to  them, 
which  he  so  well  describes,  shows  what  a  race  they  are. 

May  29.  —  We  are  beginning  now  to  be  extremely  busy,  in  our 
labors  to  finish  up  this  three-years'  absence  from  home,  and  get  our 
aflairs  ready  for  embarkation 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  a  late  and  very  aristocratic  dinner  at 
Murchison's,  the  great  geologist  and  man  of  fortune,  at  the  west  end 
of  the  town,  who  seems  to  have  his  house  really  at  the  ultra  west 
end,  so  that  I  thought  I  never  should  get  there.  The  party,  however, 
was  worth  the  trouble,  for  it  was  a  striking  mixture  of  talent  and 
aristocracy  and  fashion.  The  talent  might  be  considered  as  repre- 
sented by  Sedgwick,  Lubbock,  —  the  mathematician,  whom  I  liked  a 
good  deal,  —  Lockhart,  and  Murchison  ;  and  the  aristocracy  and  fash- 
ion, by  the  haggard,  dried-up  Lady  Davy,  Sir  Charles  Dalbiack,  —  the 
Commander  of  the  Cavalry,  —  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Roxburgh,  — 
both  young,  handsome,  and  well-bred,  —  and  the  Earl  of  Dartmouth, 
who  renewed  an  acquaintance  I  had  ■v\dth  him  formerly  at  Eome,  and 
invited  me  to  his  place  in  Staff'ordshire.  It  was  all  quite  agreeable. 
Even  Lockhart  was  softened  by  the  society,  and  introduced  the  sub- 
ject of  "  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  which  he  would  not  have  done  if 

he  had  not  been  very  amiable He  promised,  when  he  should 

be  in  the  country,  to  look  it  over,  a,nd  if  he  finds  it  what  he  expects  to 
find  it,  to  give  it  to  some  person  who  understands  Spanish  literature, 

to  make  an  article  about  it This  is  a  good  deal,  and  it  is  still 

more  that  he  was  really  good-humored  about  it It  was  a  pleas- 
ant time  with  such  people,  but  we  did  not  stay  late  ;  and  when  we 
left,  I  took  Sedgwick  to  the  Athenaeum,  and  there  bade  him  farewell 
with  much  regret.     He  goes  to  Cambridge  to-morrow. 

May  30.  —  ....  A  party  at  Mr.  Bates's,  entirely  American,  ex- 
cept Baron  Stockmar,  a  Saxon,  formerly  confidential  secretary  to 
Prince  Leopold,  now  much  about  the  Queen.  I  had  him  pretty  much 
to  myself,  and  found  him  very  acute,  and  full  of  knowledge.  He 
talks  English  almost  like  a  native. 

May  31.  —  We  breakfasted,  by  very  especial  invitation,  with  Rogers, 


180  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

in  order  to  look  over  his  pictures,  curiosities,  etc,  ;  and  therefore  no- 
body was  invited  to  meet  us  but  Miss  Rogers  and  the  Milmans.  We 
had  a  three-hours'  visit  of  it,  from  ten  till  past  one,  and  saw  certainly 
a  great  amount  of  curious  things  ;  not  only  the  pictures,  but  draw- 
ings, autographs,  little  antiques  ;  in  short,  whatever  should  belong  to 
such  a  piece  of  bijouterie  and  virtu  as  Eogers  himself  is.  ISTor  was 
agreeable  conversation  wanting,  for  he  is  full  of  anecdotes  of  his  sixty 
or  seventy  years'  experience. 

Among  other  things,  he  told  me  that  Crabbe  was  nearly  ruined  by 
grief  and  vexation  at  the  conduct  of  his  wife  for  above  seven  years,  at 
the  end  of  which  time  she  proved  to  be  insane 

"We  dined  with  our  friends  the  Edward  Villiers',  where  we  always 
enjoy  ourselves,  and  where  we  always  meet  remarkable  people.  To- 
day there  was  a  Mr.  Lewis,*  evidently  a  very  scholar-like  person  ;  Sir 
Edmund  Head  ;  Henry  Taylor,  the  poet ;  and  Mr.  Stephen,t  the  real 
head  of  the  Colonial  Office,  an  uncommon  man,  son  of  Wilberforce's 
brother-in-law,  the  author  of  "War  in  Disguise."  He  is,  I  appre- 
hend, very  orthodox,  and,  what  is  better,  very  conscientious.  He  told 
me  that  his  father  -wTote  the  "  Frauds  of  Neutral  Flags  "  —  which  so 
annoyed  us  Americans,  and  brought  out  Mr.  Madison  in  reply  — 
wholly  from  the  relations  of  the  subject  to  the  slave-trade  ;  his  pur- 
pose being  to  resist  all  attempts  on  our  part,  or  on  the  part  of  any 
other  nation,  to  stop  the  English  right  —  or  practice  —  of  search,  be- 
cause without  that  he  was  persuaded  the  slave-trade  could  never  be 
practically  and  entirely  abolished.  The  present  state  of  things  seems 
to  justify  his  fears,  if  not  his  doctrines. 

June  1.  —  .  .  .  .  After  all,  however,  I  found  time  to  make  a  \asit 
to  Carlyle,  and  to  hear  one  of  his  lectures.  He  is  rather  a  small, 
spare,  ugly  Scotchman,  with  a  strong  accent,  which  I  should  think  he 
takes  no  pains  to  mitigate.  His  manners  are  plain  and  simple,  but 
not  polished,  and  his  conversation  much  of  the  same  sort.  He  is  now 
lecturing  for  subsistence,  to  about  a  hundred  persons,  who  pay  him,  I 

believe,  two  guineas  each To-day  he  spoke  —  as  I  think  he 

commonly  does  —  without  notes,  and  therefore  as  nearly  extempore 
as  a  man  can  who  prepares  himself  carefully,  as  it  was  plain  he  had 
done.  His  course  is  on  Modern  Literature,  and  his  subject  to-day 
was  that  of  the  eighteenth  century  ;  in  which  he  contrasted  Johnson 
and  Voltabe  very  well,  and  gave  a  good  character  of  S^Wft.  He  was 
impressive,  I  think,  though  such  lecturing  could  not  well  be  very 

*  Afterwards  Sir  George  Cornewall  Lewis, 
t  Afterwards  Sir  James  Stephen. 


M.  46.]  MISS  ROGERS.  181 


popular  ;  and  in  some  parts,  if  he  were  not  poetical,  he  was  pic- 
turestj^ue.  He  was  nowhere  obscure,  nor  were  his  sentences  artifi- 
cially constructed,  though  some  of  them,  no  doubt,  savored  of  his 
peculiar  manner. 

j-^^jg  2.  — ....  I  dined  at  Kenyon's,  Avith  a  literary  party  :  Reed, 
the  author  of  "  Italy" ;  Dyce,  the  editor  of  "  Old  Plays,"  whom  I  was 
very  glad  to  see  ;  H.  N.  Coleridge  ;  and  especially  Talfourd,  the 
author  of  "  Ion" ;  with  a  few  others.  Talfourd  I  was  glad  to  see,  but 
he  disappointed  me.  He  is  no  doubt  a  poet  of  genius,  within  certain 
limits,  and  a  very  hard-working,  successful  lawyer,  but  he  is  a  little 
too  fat,  red-faced,  and  coarse  in  his  appearance He  talks  strik- 
ingly rather  than  soundly,  defendmg  Cato,  for  instance,  as  an  admi- 
rable, poetical  tragedy  ;  and  was  a  little  too  artificial  and  too  brilliant, 
both  in  the  structure  and  phraseology  of  his  sentences  and  in  the  gen- 
eral tone  of  his  thoughts However,  we  got  along  very  well 

together,  and  about  eleven  o'clock  I  took  him  to  Babbage's,  where 

there  was  a  grand  assembly,  lords  and  bishops  in  plenty The 

only  person  to  whom  I  was  introduced,  that  I  was  curious  about,  was 
Bulwer,  the  novelist  ;  a  white-haired,  white- whiskered,  white-faced 
fop,  all  point  device,  with  his  flowing  curls  and  his  silk-lmed  coat, 
and  his  conversation  to  match  the  whole 

June  3.  —  We  began  the  day  with  a  breakfast  at  Miss  Rogers's,  in 
her  nice  house  on  Regent's  Park,  which  is  a  sort  of  imitation  —  and 
not  a  bad  one  either  —  of  her  brother's  on  St.  James's.  She  has  some 
good  pictures,  among  which  is  Leslie's  Duchess  and  Sancho,  the  best 
thing  of  his  I  have  seen  of  late  years  ;  and  she  keeps  autographs,  curi- 
osities, and  objects  of  virtu,  just  like  her  brother.  Best  of  all,  she  is 
kind  and  good-humored,  and  had  invited  very  pleasant  friends  to  meet 
US,  —  Leslie,  Babbage,  Mackintosh,  and  her  brother,  who  was  extraor- 
dinarily agreeable,  and  made  us  stay  unreasonably  late. 

We  then  made  some  visits  P.  P.  C,  and  on  coming  home  received 
many,  which  we  were  sorry  to  receive,  because  they  were  intimations 
that  our  expected  departure  would  hardly  permit  us  to  see  these  kind 

friends  again As  soon  as  they  were  gone  I  hurried  out  to  dine 

at  Holland  House.     It  was  a  larger  party  than  is  quite  common  at 

that  very  agreeable  round  table We  dined,  of  course,  in  the 

grand  Gilt  Room,  and  had  at  table  Mr.  Ellice,  t>ne  of  Lord  Mel- 
bourne's first  cabinet,  and  brother-in-law  of  Lord  Grey  ;  Lady  Cow- 
per  and  her  daughter.  Lady  Fanny,  —  mater  jmlchra,  filia  indclirior; 
Lord  John  Russell,  the  Atlas  of  this  unhappy  administration  ;  .  .  .  . 
Lord  and  Lady  Morley  ;  Stanley,  of  the  Treasury  ;  Gayangos,  —  the 


r" 


"182  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1838. 

Spaniard  I  was  desirous  to  see,  because  lie  is  to  review  Prescott's 

book  ;   and  Sir  Francis  Head It  was  certainly  as  agreeable 

as  a  party  well  could  be.  I  took  pains  to  get  between  Head  and 
Gayangos  at  dinner,  because  I  wanted  to  know  them  both.  The 
Spaniard  —  about  thirty-two  years  old,  and  talking  English  like  a 
native,  almost  —  I  found  quite  pleasant,  and  full  of  pleasant  knowl- 
edge in  Spanish  and  Ai'abic,  and  with  the  kindliest  good- will  towards 
"  Ferdinand  and  Isabella." 

Sir  Francis  Head,  on  the  contrary, — a  little  short  man,  with  quick, 
decisive  motions,  and  his  reddish  hair  cut  very  close  to  his  head,  —  I 
found  somewhat  stiff  ;  but  the  difficulty,  as  I  soon  discovered,  was, 
that  he  did  not  feel  at  his  ease,  knowing  that  he  is  out  of  all  favor 
with  the  present  administration,  two  or  three  of  the  leading  members 
of  which  were  at  table.  However,  Lord  Holland's  genial  good-nature 
in  time  thawed  all  reserve,  and  before  we  followed  the  ladies  into 
the  grand  old  library  the  conversation  was  as  free  as  possible.  Sir 
Francis,  however,  I  observed,  made  his  escape  early. 

The  rest  of  us  stayed  very  late,  gossiping  and  talking  over  odd 
books,  old  Spanish  manuscripts,  and  the  awkward  state  of  parties  in. 
England.  I  was  sorry  to  come  away,  for  1  shall  never  be  there  again  ; 
but  it  was  nearly  one  o'clock  when  I  reached  the  Brunswick. 

June  4.  —  "We  breakfasted  at  Milman's,  in  his  nice,  comfortable 
establishment  in  the  cloisters  of  "Westminster  Abbey,  with  only  Mr. 
and  Miss  Eogers  and  Rio,*  a  Frenchman  learned  in  what  relates  to 
the  Middle  Ages,  and  who,  from  talking  Enghsh  very  well,  has  had 
good  success  in  London  literary  society  of  late.  They  were  all  pleas- 
ant, Rogers  especially  so.  1  was  amused,  and  not  sorry,  to  hear  him 
say  that  Bulwer,  though  of  a  good  old  family  and  enjoying  a  certain 
degree  of  popularity,  had  never  been  able  to  establish  for  himself  a 
place  in  the  best  London  society.  He  added,  that  he  himself  had 
never  seen  him  so  as  to  know  him,  though  he  supposed  he  must  have 
met  him  in  large  parties  ;  a  curious  fact,  considering  Rogers's  own  uni- 
versality. He  urged  us  again  to  dine  with  him  to-morrow,  said  he 
would  give  up  dining  abroad  himself  and  insure  us  seats  at  the  opera, 
to  see  Taglioni,  who  appears  for  the  first  time  ;  in  short,  he  was  ex- 
ceedingly kind.  But  it  is  out  of  the  c^uestion.  To-morrow  is  our 
last  day  in  London 

June  5.  — ....  "We  went  to  breakfast  at  Kenyon's,  where  we  met 
Davies  Gilbert,  —  the  former  President  of  the  Roval  Societv,  —  Guil- 
lemard,  young  Southey,  and  Mr.  Andrew  Crosse,  of  Somersetshire, 

*  M.  A.  F.  Rio,  author  of  "  La  Poesie  Chretienne,"  etc. 


M.  46.]  LEAVING  EUROPE.  1S3 

who  lias  made  so  much  noise  of  late  with  his  crystallized  minerals, 
formed  by  galvanic  action,  and  especially  with  the  insects  that  ap- 
peared in  some  experiments  with  acids  and  silica.  The  object  of  the 
breakfast  was  to  show  these  minerals  and  insects,  and.  they  are  really 
very  marvellous  and  curious. 

Crosse,  too,  is  worth  knowing  ;  a  fine,  manly,  frank  fellow,  of  about 
fifty  years  old,  full  of  genius  and  zeal.  It  was  an  interesting  morn- 
ing, but  it  was  ended  by  a  very  sad  parting ;  for  Kenyon  is  an  old  and 
true  friend,  and  when  he  stood  by  the  carriage  door  as  we  stepped  in, 
we  could  none  of  us  get  out  the  words  we  wanted  to  utter. 

Leaving  London  on  the  6  th  of  June,  Mr.  Ticknor  and  his 
family  embarked  at  Portsmouth  on  the  10th,  on  board  a  sailing 
packet.  The  first  steamer  that  crossed  the  Atlantic,  the  Sirius, 
made  its  first  voyage  from  England  to  the  United  States  that 
spring  j  but,  when  Mr.  Ticknor  was  obliged  to  decide  on  the  mode 
of  his  return,  she  had  not  been  heard  from,  and  he  did  not  think 
it  wise  to  risk  the  safety  of  his  family  on  such  a  new  experi- 
ment. 


184  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S38. 


CHAPTEE    X. 

Arrival  at  Home.  —  Letters  to  Miss  Edgeioorth,  Mr.  Legare,  Prince  John 
of  Saxony,  Count  Circourt,  Mr.  Frescott,  Mr.  Kenyon,  and  others.  — 
Death  of  Mr.  Legare. 

ME.  TICKXOE'S  second  return  from  Europe  resembled  the 
first  in  the  happiness  it  brought,  and  in  the  warmth  of 
affection  with  which  he  was  greeted  by  his  friends  and  kindred, 
but  differed  from  it  in  the  character  of  his  general  reception ;  for 
he  was  not  now  simply  a  young  man  of  brilliant  promise,  but  he 
had,  by  his  talents  and  character,  made  a  mark  in  the  commu- 
nity, and  his  absence  had  been  distinctly  felt.  A  visit  to  Europe, 
especially  one  of  so  long  duration,  was  still  a  rare  event,  and  the 
return  of  such  a  man,  after  such  an  absence,  was  a  matter  of  no 
common  interest.  Almost  as  soon  as  he  entered  the  rooms  ]3ro- 
vided  for  him  at  the  Tremont  House,  the  parlor  was  entirely 
iiUed  by  friends  and  acquaintances  —  some  of  whom  had  met 
him  at  the  station  —  eager  to  welcome  him ;  and  while  he  re- 
mained there,  many  hours  of  each  day  were  occupied  by  these 
cordial  greetings.  His  love  of  home,  his  pride  in  his  country, 
and  his  preference  for  a  regular,  domestic  life,  always  —  as  has 
already  been  said  —  made  him  regard  his  absences  as  periods 
taken  out  of  his  legitimate  life ;  and  he  now  resumed,  as  quickly 
as  possible,  his  share  in  the  interests  of  his  native  sphere. 

For  a  year  or  more  after  his  return,  he  and  his  family  still 
lived  somewhat  like  travellers,  visiting  various  relatives  and 
friends  during  the  two  summers,  and  in  the  winter  and  spring, 
while  in  Boston,  passing  a  few  weeks  at  a  hotel,  and  five 
months  under  the  hospitable  roof  of  their  friend,  F.  C.  Gray. 
In  September,  1839,  they  were  able  to  return  to  their  house  in 
Park  Street,  which  had  been  rented  for  four  years,  and  at  the 
expiration  of  that  time  had  required  some  renovation  and  change. 


JE.  47.]  HOME  INTERESTS.  185 

During  the  succeeding  years,  Mr.  Ticknor's  correspondence 
with  friends,  both  in  America  and  in  Europe,  became  more  in- 
teresting than  before  ;  but  it  contains  few  alhisions  to  his  per- 
sonal occupations,  or  the  daily  incidents  of  his  life.  It  shows 
the  strong  feehng  he  had  for  the  progress  of  his  country,  and  his 
desire  to  have  it  better  understood  abroad ;  and  it  is  always  full 
of  a  warm-hearted  interest  in  whatever  concerned  those  to  whom 
he  was  personally  attached. 

The  frequent  reference  to  political  subjects  in  his  letters,  espe- 
cially at  a  later  period,  will  be  observed,  not  only  as  somewhat 
unexpected  from  a  man  devoted  to  scholarly  and  literary  pur- 
suits, but  as  opposed  to  the  impression  entertained  by  those  who 
knew  him  only  slightly,  that  he  was  indifferent  to  matters  of 
government  and  politics.  That  he  had  strong  convictions  and 
intelligent  opinions  on  all  the  political  movements  of  his  time  in 
his  own  country,  that  he  observed  carefully,  and  watched  with 
interest  what  may  be  called  comparative  politics,  historical  and 
contemporaneous,  mil  readily  be  seen.  The  formation  of  his 
views  was  the  result  of  influences,  some  of  which  were  peculiar 
in  his  case. 

One  of  his  marked  characteristics  was  loyalty  to  truth ;  and 
he  always  felt  that  this  virtue  could  be  maintained  in  politics,  as 
in  everything  else.  He  thought  that  in  our  written  Constitution 
we  had  a  standard  of  political  truth  and  integrity  to  which  it  was 
always  safe  and  patriotic  to  conform.  He  therefore  belonged  to 
whatever  party  in  the  country  gave  the  most  trustworthy  assur- 
ance of  adhering  to  the  Constitution  and  preserving  the  Union, 
with  least  variation  from  the  principles  of  its  founders.  He  be- 
lonf^ed  to  a  generation  which  beoran  life  while  vet  the  discussions 
connected  with  the  first  creation  of  the  United  States  government 
were  fresh  in  men's  minds ;  when  the  opinions  of  Washington, 
Hamilton,  and  Adams  were  familiarly  known  ;  and  he  lived 
through  a  period  when  the  progress  of  the  nation  Avas  remarkably 
rapid,  well-balanced  in  material,  moral,  and  intellectual  growth, 
and  guided  by  men  of  worth  as  well  as  of  ability.  As  his  gener- 
ation began  to  pass  away,  an  enormous  material  development, 
immense  immigration,  and  eager  divergence  into  sectional  par- 


186  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1838. 

ties,  changed  the  character  of  the  country  in  several  important 
respects. 

His  intercourse  in  Europe  with  men  distinguished  both  as 
leading  statesmen  and  as  political  thinkers  ;  his  pursuit,  even  at 
Gottingen,  of  studies  calculated  to  make  him  a  competent  ob- 
server of  the  public  life,  the  statesmen,  and  the  governments  of 
different  lands,  —  all  trained  his  judgment  and  quickened  his 
insight  into  similar  subjects  at  home. 

In  consequence  of  this,  he  took,  for  more  than  fifty  years,  as 
keen  an  interest  in  all  the  active  political  thought  of  his  time,  as 
if  he  himself  had  been  concerned  in  its  creation  or  its  control. 
His  ability  and  his  sagacity  will  be  differently  estimated  by  dif- 
ferent readers ;  but  his  interest,  and  the  breadth,  wisdom,  and 
elevation  of  his  desires  for  his  country,  will  be  apparent  to  all. 
He  loved  his  native  land,  and  always  fulfilled  the  duties  imposed 
on  private  citizens  with  the  privileges  of  a  free  government. 
That  he  was  thought  sometimes  desponding  about  the  success  of 
our  institutions  grew,  probably,  out  of  the  eagerness  and  emphasis 
which  he  often  put  into  the  expression  of  that  consciousness  of 
our  dangers,  from  which  no  man,  with  his  antecedents  and  his 
point  of  view,  could  escape ;  but  which  to  younger  men,  of  a 
generation  marked  by  a  spirit  of  laissez-faire  and  sanguine  confi- 
dence, seemed  exaggerated  and  depressing. 

His  conversation  showed  his  sense  of  the  responsibility  which 
rests  on  every  man  of  thought  and  integrity  to  transmit  to 
others  the  great  truths  and  traditions  he  has  received  as  an 
inheritance  from  those  before  him ;  to  discountenance  opinions 
which  he  is  satisfied  are  dangerous  to  civiHzation  and  to  healthy 
progress  (a  duty,  as  he  once  wrote,  especially  important  where 
the  government  rests  on  public  opinion) ;  and  to  promote,  so  far 
as  in  him  lies,  the  sovereignty  of  law  and  justice. 

When  a  young  law  student,  1813-15,  Mr,  Ticknor  belonged 
to  the  Federalist  party,  and  he  always  adhered  to  its  creed, 
calling  himself,  in  his  latest  years,  an  "old  Federalist."  In 
those  early  days  he  wrote  political  articles  for  the  newspapers, 
and  was  somewhat  a  partisan ;  but  after  his  first  return  from 
Europe  he  did  not  renew  either  this  spirit  or  that  habit. 


M  47.]  CORRESPONDENCE.  187 

Mr.  George  T.  Curtis  furnislies  the  following  anecdote,  which 
is  associated  with  this  subject :  "  I  chanced,"  he  says,  "  at  a 
public  dinner  in  Boston,  on  some  political  occasion,  to  sit  next 
to  a  gentleman  of  some  literary  celebrity,  who,  although  he  re- 
sided in  the  neighborhood,  was  not  intimately  acquainted  with 
Mr.  Ticknor,  and  who  did  not  know  that  he  was  my  kinsman. 
In  the  course  of  the  evening  he  spoke  with  some  asperity  of  Mr. 
Ticknor,  as  a  man  wdio  never  voted  at  elections.  I  told  him  he 
was  entirely  mistaken ;  that  Mr.  Ticknor  had  always  voted  at 
elections,  when  he  was  at  home ;  that  I  had  very  often  gone 
with  him  to  the  polls,  and  when  I  had  not  done  so,  I  knew 
that  he  had  voted,  and  how.  This  statement  occasioned  some 
surprise  among  those  who  heard  it,  and  who  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  regarding  Mr.  Ticknor  as  a  man  who  held  himself 
entirely  aloof  from  all  sympathy  in  the  political  questions 
that  agitated  his  country  or  his  State."  Abundant  testimony 
could  be  gathered  on  this  point,  as  his  friends  and  family  know 
that  he  never  failed  to  vote  at  municipal,  State,  and  general 
elections. 

Premising  that,  from  this  time  forward,  all  his  winters  —  ex- 
cept one  —  during  the  remainder  of  his  life  were  passed  in  Bos- 
ton, and  that  the  summers  of  1840,  1841,  and  1842  were  spent 
in  a  quiet  spot  on  the  sea-shore,  —  partly  described  in  the  letters, 
—  we  give  a  selection  from  the  correspondence,  in  chronological 
order. 

To  Earl  Fitzwilliam. 

Boston,  October  17,  1838. 
My  dear  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  — .  .  .  .  Since  we  saw  you,  we 
have  seen  a  good  deal  of  our  own  country,  ....  and  I  cannot  ex- 
press to  you  how  much  I  have  been  struck  with  the  progress  every- 
thing has  made  during  the  three  years  of  our  absence.  And  yet, 
during  those  years,  we  have  passed  through  the  severest  commercial 
embarrassments  we  have  ever  experienced,  and  have  sustained  losses 
which  almost  anywhere  else  would  have  left  deep,  if  not  dangerous 
traces.  But  the  truth  is,  the  condition  of  the  lowest  classes  of  the 
people  is  so  truly  comfortable,  there  is  so  much  thrift  and  prosperity 
among  them,  and,  above  all,  so  much  education,  intelligence,  and  do- 


188  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1839. 

mestic  happiness  and  purity,  that  the  changes  which  affect  the  condi- 
tion of  the  rich  reach  them  always  very  slowly,  and  generally  not  at 

all I  witness,  therefore,  wherever  I  go,  nothing  but  proofs  of 

improvement,  —  houses  everywhere  just  built  and  building  ;  villages 
and  hamlets  starting,  as  it  were,  from  the  earth  before  me  ;  three 
raiboads  just  opened  into  this  city  ;  steamboats  J)lying  in  all  direc- 
tions ;  and  all  the  signs  of  activity  and  success,  an  activity  and  suc- 
cess which  belong  not  to  a  few,  or  to  a  class,  but  to  the  whole  peo- 
ple  

Education  is  advancing  more  rapidly,  even,  than  wealth  is  accumu- 
lated  Indeed,  if  we  can  keep  the  relations  of  domestic  life  as 

true  and  as  pure  as  they  now  are,  and  continue  the  advancement  and 
diffusion  of  knowledge  and  intelligence  through  the  whole  people,  I 
know  not  that  we  can  ask  anything  more  for  the  country.  Our  free 
institutions  will  then  have  a  fair  chance  ;  and  if  they  fail,  they  will  fail 
from  the  inherent  faults  of  such  institutions,  and  not  from  the  unfa- 
vorable circumstances  under  which  the  experiment  will  be  tried 

To  Miss  Maria  Edgeworth,  Edgeworthtown. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  March  6,  1839. 

Dear  Miss  Edgeworth,  — .  .  .  .  We  have  been  at  home  long 
enough  to  feel  quite  settled  ;  and  we  are  very  happy  in  it.  Our  fam- 
ily circle  is  large,  and  the  circle  of  kind  friends  much  larger.  The 
to\\-n,  too,  is  a  good  town  to  live  in.  It  is  a  part  of  my  enjoyments,  — 
and  one  that  I  feel  deeply,  —  that  in  this  town  of  80,000  inhabitants, 
—  or,  with  the  suburban  towns,  120,000,  —  where  there  is  a  great  deal 
of  intellectual  activity  and  cultivation,  there  is  no  visible  poverty, 
little  gross  ignorance,  and  little  crime. 

....  The  principle,  that  the  property  of  the  country  is  bound  to 
educate  all  the  children  of  the  country,  is  as  firmly  settled  in  New 
England  as  any  principle  of  the  British  Constitution  is  settled  in  your 
empire  ;  and  as  it  is  alike  for  the  interest  of  the  majority,  who  have 
but  little  of  the  property  that  is  taxed  to  pay  for  the  education,  and 
for  the  interest  of  the  rich,  who  protect  their  property  by  this  moral 
police,  it  is  likely  to  be  long  sustained,  as  it  is  now  sustained,  by  uni- 
versal consent.  But,  though  I  do  not  foresee  the  effects,  it  requires 
no  spirit  of  prophecy  to  show  that  they  must  be  great  ;  and  can  they 
be  anything  but  good  ?  The  present  effect,  which  I  feel  every  day,  is, 
that  Boston  is  a  happy  place  to  live  in,  because  all  the  people  are  edu- 
cated, and  because  some  of  them,  like  Dr.  Channing,  Mr.  Norton,  and 


M  47.]  LETTER  TO   I\riSS  EDGEWORTII.  189 

Mr.  Prescott,  who  have  grown  out  of  this  state  of  things,  and  Mr. 
Webster,  and  others,  ivho  could  have  been  produced  in  no  other  than  this 
state  of  things,  are  men  who  would  be  valued  in  any  state  of  society 
in  the  world,  and  contribute  materially  to  render  its  daily  intercourse 
agreeable 


....  Among  the  books  republished  here,  and  of  which  more 
copies  have  been  sold  in  America  than  were  sold  of  the  original  edi- 
tion in  England,  is  Lockhart's  Life  of  Sir  Walter,  about  which  you 
ask.  It  is  a  most  interesting  book,  and  has  greatly  interested  the 
multitudes  here,  who  feel  that  Scott  belongs  to  us  as  he  does  to  you, 
and  who  thank  God  that  Milton's  language  is  our  mother-tongue,  and 
Shakespeare's  name  compatriot  with  our  own.  But  the  ocean  that 
rolls  between  us  operates  like  the  grave  on  all  personal  and  party 
feelings  ;  and  our  thoughts  and  feelings  towards  such  as  Sir  Walter 
and  yourself  are  as  impartial,  at  least,  if  not  as  wise  and  decisive,  as 
the  voice  of  posterity.     We  were,  therefore,  pained  by  some  parts  of 

this  book To  the  admirers   of  Sir  Walter  in  America,  who 

knew  him  only  as  they  know  Shakespeare,  part  of  what  is  in  Lock- 
hart  was  an  unwelcome  surprise,  much  more  so  than  it  was  in  Eng- 
land, where  the  weaknesses  of  his  character  were  known  to  many.  Sir 
Walter,  therefore,  does  not  stand,  in  the  moral  estimation  of  this  coun- 
try, where  he  did. 

Perhaps  Lockhart  ccg^ild  not  avoid  this,  certainly  he  could  not  avoid 
it  entirely,  but  there  is  one  thing  he  could  have  avoided  ;  I  mean 
printing  some  of  the  letters,  and  some  parts  of  the  private  journal. 
No  doubt  the  letters,  generally,  are  the  most  delightful  part  of  the 
whole  work,  and  if  all  had  been  like  those  to  you,  they  would  have 
given  only  pleasure.  But  in  some  of  them  Sir  Walter  is  made  to  ex- 
pose himself.  There  was  no  need  of  this,  and  it  has  given  great  pain. 
Some  day  I  hope  we  shall  see  all  the  letters  you  were  so  kind  as  to 
show  us  at  Edgeworthtown.  Two  or  three  of  them  do  him  more 
honor  than  any  in  Lockhart.  Nothing,  however,  can  prevent  the 
book  from  being  a  painful  one.  I  felt,  in  reading  it,  as  if  I  were  wit- 
nessing the  vain  and  cruel  struggles  of  one  driven  forward  by  the 
irresistible  fate  of  the  old  Greek  tracredians 


To  H.  E.  H.  Prince  John,  Duke  of  Saxony. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  May  17,  1839. 
My  dear  Lord,  —  I  received  in  the  summer  of  year  before  last  a 
kind  letter  from  you,  in  reply  to  miae  from  Florence  about  Carlo 


190  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1839. 

Troya,  and  I  intended  to  have  done  myself  the  honor  to  thank  you 
for  it  ;  but  constant  travelling,  with  the  occupations  consequent 
upon  my  return  home,  have  thus  far  prevented  me.  But  our  recol- 
lections of  Dresden,  and  of  all  the  kindness  we  received  there,  are 
too  deep  and  sincere  to  permit  us  to  neglect  any  opportunity  of 
recalling  ourselves  to  the  memories  of  those  to  whom  we  owe  so 
much. 

I  am  the  more  anxious  to  write  to  you  now,  because  I  wish  to  offer 
you  a  book  published  last  year  by  one  of  my  most  intimate  friends  ; 
the  "  History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  by  Mr.  William  H.  Pres- 
cott,  of  this  city,  a  work  which  has  obtained  great  success  in  England 
as  well  as  in  this  country,  and  which  is  begiiming  to  be  known  in 
France  and  Germany.  Our  friend  Count  Circourt  published  an  elab- 
orate review  of  it  lately  in  the  "  Bibliotheque  Universelle,"  giving  it 
great  praise  ;  and  Hallam,  Southey,  and  others  of  the  best  judges  in 
England  have  placed  it  equally  high.  I  wish  to  offer  it  to  you, 
therefore,  as  a  specimen  of  the  progress  of  letters  in  this  country  at 
the  present  time,  and  I  think  it  will  give  you  pleasure  to  look  over 
it.  To  Baron  Lindenau  I  send,  by  the  same  conveyance,  a  Commen- 
tary on  the  "  Mecanique  Celeste  "  of  La  Place,*  which  marks  the  limit 
of  our  advancement  in  the  exact  sciences. 

But  everything  with  us  makes  progress.  I  am  struck  with  it  on 
all  sides,  since  I  came  home,  after  an  absence  of  three  or  four  years. 
I  wish,  indeed,  that  in  some  respects  our  progress  were  less  rapid,  for 
I  should  then  feel  that  it  would  be  more  safe,  and  that  its  results 
would  be  more  solid.  But  there  is  no  remedy  for  the  evil,  if  it  be  in 
fact  an  e"ST.l,  which  the  future  only  can  prove  ;  for  progress  —  rapid, 
inevitable  progress  in  wealth,  in  education,  in  civilization  —  is  the 
very  law  of  our  condition,  and  its  impulse  is  irresistible.  We  all 
feel  and  obey  it. 

I  am  very  anxious  to  hear  of  the  publication,  or  rather  the  printing, 
of  your  translation  of  the  "  Purgatorio."  It  must^  I  think,  by  this 
time  be  out  of  the  press 

And  now,  my  dear  Prince,  I  pray  you  to  keep  us  in  your  kind 
thoughts,  for  we  always  think  of  you  and  of  our  pleasant  winter  in 
Dresden  with  gratitude.    Offer  too,  we  pray  you,  our  respectful  homage 

to  the  King  and  Queen 

Ever,  my  dear  Prince,  very  faithfully  yours, 

George  Ticknor. 

*  By  Dr.  Bowditch. 


M.  48.]  HUGH  SWINTON  LEGAR^.  191 

To  Hugh  S.  Legare,  Charleston,  S.  C* 

Boston,  December  29,  1839. 

My  dear  Legare,  —  After  the  old  Anglo-Saxon  fashion,  I  wish 
you  a  Happy  New  Year,  and  doubt  not  my  greeting  will  find  you  well 
in  possession  of  it ;  for  your  letter  has  a  cheerful  tone  about  it.  You 
were  just  arrived  at  your  own  home,  —  if  such  a  desperate  bachelor 
as  you  are  has  anything,  or  deserves  to  have  anything,  that  is  such  a 
real  comfort,  —  and  your  heart  seemed  to  feel  light.  I  rejoice  at  it, 
and  counsel  you,  while  you  make  the  most  of  what  you  have,  to  add 
the  rest,  —  as  it  were  the  shirt  to  the  ruffle,  —  as  soon  as  you  find  a 
good  chance.  Your  present  wheels,  like  those  of  Pharaoh's  chariots 
in  the  Red  Sea,  will  drive  more  heavily  the  farther  you  go  in  your 
journey 

It  is  true,  as  you  say,  that  our  old  friend  Hita,  or  Hyta,  speaks 
doubtfully  of  the  place  where  the  glorious  Alonso  de  Aguilar,  of  the 
Ballads,  fell.  But  there  is  really  no  doubt  about  it.  It  was  in  the 
Sierra  Vermeja.  One  of  the  most  picturesque  passages  in  the  his- 
tory of  any  country  is  the  account  by  old  Mendoza,  of  an  expedition 
by  the  Duke  of  Arcos,  in  the  days  of  what  is  quaintly  called  the  Re- 
bellion of  the  Moors,  —  say  1570,  —  and  of  his  finding  in  the  Vermeja 
the  bones  of  those  that  perished  with  Alonso  ;  a  passage  you  will 
enjoy  the  more  if  you  will  compare  it  with  Tacitus'  account  of  the 
finding,  by  Germanicus,  of  the  bones  of  Varus'  lost  legion,  which  the 
old  Spaniard  has  so  exquisitely  used,  and  stolen,  as  to  make  his  very 
theft  a  merit  and  a  grace.  Do  read  it.  It  is  in  the  fourth  book  of  the 
proud  old  courtier,  and  fully  confirms  the  ballad 

Gray,  Prescott,  and  the  rest  of  tutta  quella  schiera,  —  as  jom  call  it, 
and  you  might  have  added  henedetta,  —  are  well.     We  dined  together 

yesterday,  and  wanted  you  cinquieme,  Sparks  being  the  fourth 

"We  are  all  well  in  my  house,  and  enjoy  a  quiet  winter  and  many 
most  agreeable  evenings.     I  am  teaching  five  or  six  very  nice  girls,  of 

*  The  Hon.  Hugh  Swinton  Legare,  already  mentioned  more  than  once  (see 
Vol.  I.  pp.  278,  450,  and  488),  had  gradually  reached  a  position  of  much  emi- 
nence in  the  United  States.  He  was  a  statesman,  with  opinions  and  views  of  the 
broadest  character,  wlio,  in  the  nullification  troubles  in  his  native  State  of  South 
Carolina,  in  the  years  1832-33,  was  a  firm  and  influential  adhcEent  of  the  Union, 
in  opposition  to  the  local  sentiment  of  the  State.  The  friendship  between  him 
and  Mr.  Ticknor  grew  warmer,  and  their  intercourse  more  frequent.  Mr.  Legare 
had  been  a  member  of  Congress,  but  was  at  this  time  (December,  1839)  prac- 
tising his  profession  (the  law)  with  almost  unrivalled  distinction  in  South  Caro- 
lina. 


192  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1839. 

sixteen  to  nineteen,  who  belong  to  my  family,  to  understand  and  love 
Milton,  and  it  is  a  great  pleasure  to  find  how  they  take  to  it. 

Yours  always, 

G.  T. 

To  Charles  S.  Daveis,  Portland. 

Boston,  December  31,  1839. 

My  dear  Charles,  — ....  The  world  goes  on  here,  inside  and 
outside  my  domicile,  much  after  its  old  rate.  The  money  market  is 
easier,  business  men  less  anxious,  and  the  prospect  of  getting  into  new 
scrapes  and  embarrassments,  from  Eastern  or  Western  lands,  up-town 
lots,  or  other  absurdities,  very  promising.  The  opinion  here  is  that 
m.oney  will  be  a  drug  in  April,  and  the  consequence  of  that,  I  suppose, 
is  inevitable.  Old  Mr.  Lyman  used  to  say  he  never  knew  anybody 
learn  anything  by  experience  ;  and  the  Yankees,  nowadays,  seem  to 
justify  his  wisdom,  or  sarcasm.  Whereupon,  I  hold  it  judicious  to 
sell  out  all  bank,  insurance,  and  other  stocks,  whether  fancy  or  not, 
and  live  on  mortgages  and  such  small  deer,  till  the  succession  of  gales 
now  blowing,  and  of  political  parties  now  fighting,  are  pretty  much 
gone  by,  and  things  are  settled  doAvn  into  some  sort  of  peace  and  or- 
der ;  for,  considering  how  much  we  are  under  the  fluctuations  of 
foreign  aff'airs  as  well  as  domestic  follies,  and,  taking  Louis  Philippe, 
the  Chartists,  the  Northeastern  Boundary,  and  the  Southwestern  bank- 
ruptcy, all  into  the  computation,  a  close  reef  is  better  than  a  flo'wing 
sheet.  "  Ye  have  what  I  advise,"  as  Beelzebub  said,  braggingly,  after 
he  had  counselled  "  ignoble  ease  and  peaceful  sloth,"  —  a  parallel  to 
my  case,  if  you  like  so  to  call  it. 

....  We  are  all  well ;  my  wife  famously,  and  the  bairns  thrivingly. 
Whiggery  is  low.  I  never  thought  much  of  it,  and  now  less  than 
ever,  since  the  Whigs  have  chosen  a  nullifier  and  a  sub-treasury  man 
for  Speaker.*  ....  But  we  shall  get  settled  some  time  or  other,  and 
so  will  you  in  Maine.  When  will  you  get  your  laiid  on  the  Mada- 
waska,  and  when  will  you  get  pay  for  your  frolic  last  winter  ?  How- 
ever, laissez-aller.     It  is  a  new  year.     Love  to  all. 

Yours  always, 

•^  '  G.  T. 

To  Charles  S.  Daveis,  Portland. 

Boston,  May  12,  1840. 

Guizot's  essay  on  the  character  of  Washington  is  admirable,  and 
Hillard  has  done  justice  to  it  in  the  translation.     As  soon  as  it  is  out 

*  R.  M.  T.  Hunter. 


M.  48.]  METAPHYSICS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  193 

I  pray  you  to  read  it,  and  cause  it  to  be  read  in  your  purlieus.  It  is 
a  salutary  document,  and  as  beautiful  as  it  is  salutary  ;  full  of  states- 
manlike wisdom,  and  with  an  extraordinary  insight  into  the  state  of 
our  affairs,  in  their  most  troublesome  and  difficult  times.  Moreover,  no 
man,  I  think,  has  rendered  such  ample  and  graceful  justice  to  Wash- 
ington's character.  Brougham's  sketch  is  an  ordinary  piece  of  shallow 
rhetoric  compared  to  it. 

I  received  a  few  days  ago  from  our  old  friend,  Professor  Smyth,  the 
two  first  volumes  of  his  lectures  on  history  ;  a  genial  work,  like  him- 
self, and,  if  not  a  regular  abstract  of  dates  and  events,  a  w^ork  as  well 
fitted  as  any  I  have  ever  seen  to  rouse  uj)  the  minds  of  young  men. 

and  induce  them  to  inquire  and  learn  for  themselves The 

rather  irregular  mode  in  which  it  is  all  done  adds,  perhaps,  to  its 
effect,  by  giving  it  the  same  air  of  frankness  and  sincerity  that  marks 
his  own  character  and  talk,  and  are  more  persuading  than  anything 
formal  ever  is. 

We  are  all  well.  For  the  last  week  we  have  had  five  nieces  stay- 
ing with  us,  and  so  have  made  a  merry  time  of  it  ;  but  in  a  day  or 
two  they  will  go  home  and  leave  us  to  ourselves.  It  is  perhaps  time, 
on  some  accounts.  We  have  had  our  house  full  a  large  part  of  the 
winter.  .... 

To  Miss  Maria  Edgeworth,  Edgeworthtown. 

July  10,  1840. 

You  ask  me,  dear  Miss  Edgeworth,  to  give  you  some  account  of  the 
state  of  metaphysics  in  this  country,  desiring,  I  think,  chiefly  to  be 
informed  of  their  j)ractical  effect  on  life  and  character  among  us.  It 
is  very  kind  in  you  thus  to  give  me  an  opportunity  of  speaking  to 
you,  and  so  keeping  up  a  little  of  that  intercourse  which,  during  the 
few  days  we  were  at  Edgeworthtown,  was  so  truly  delightful  to  us. 
But  I  do  not  know  that  I  should  venture  to  take  you  at  your  word, 
if  the  story  were  not  a  very  short  one  ;  for  I  think  you  have  as  little 
fancy  for  metaphysics,  taken  in  the  common  and  popular  sense  of  the 
word,  as  I  have  ;  and  that  a  history  of  them,  given  at  any  length, 
would  be  very  wearisome  to  you. 

Luckily  we  are  a  practical  people,  perhaps  a  little  .too  much  given        "7 
to  the  merely  useful,  but  w^e  are  eminently  a  practical  people.     If, 
therefore,  we  are  at  any  time  attacked  by  the  metaphysical  disease,  we 
must,  like  the  Scotch,  necessarily  have  it  lightly.     It  cannot  become 
chronic  or  permanent  in  the  constitution,  as  with  the  more  spiritualized 

VOL.   II.  9  M 


194  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1840. 

and  imaginative  Germans.  Indeed,  I  doubt  whether  we  should,  at 
any  period  of  our  history,  have  been  metaphysically  inclined,  if  our 

popular  theology  had  not  long  been  of  a  character  so  peculiar 

The  Assembly's  Catechism  and  other  similar  works,  acutely  meta- 
physical, were  the  books  in  almost  universal  use  among  us,  and  the 
only  truly  great  metaphysical  work  we  have  produced  is  the  type  and 
complement  of  such  a  state  of  things.^  .... 

No  doubt  such  sort  of  reading  as  this,  which  was  the  popular  read- 
ing in  New  England,  where  everybody  read,  had  a  considerable  effect 
on  the  character  of  the  people  for  a  time.  One  of  the  most  practically 
wise  statesmen  now  alive  has  often  told  me,  that  we  never  should  have 
had  our  Eevolution,  if  all  the  people  had  not  been,  for  a  century,  in  the 
habit  of  discussing  the  Westminster  Assembly's  Catechism.  And  there 
is  more  truth  in  the  odd  jest  than  at  first  appears 

However,  as  I  said  before,  we  are  a  practical  people,  —  eminently 
so,  —  and  it  was  not  possible  metaphysics  should  become  part  of  our 
constitution.  Since,  therefore,  our  revolutionary  condition  has  passed 
away,  —  revolutionary,  I  mean,  in  intellectual  movement  as  well  as 
political,  —  and  has  given  place  to  a  more  settled  state  of  things,  we 
have  shown  little  tendency  to  metaphysical  discussions  or  controver- 
sies. Even  Calvinism,  where  it  exists,  has  lost  much  of  its  theoretical, 
philosophical  character  and  severity  ;  and  the  other  religious  sects, 
seeing  to  what  absurdities  the  Calvinists  were  so  long  carried,  by  their 
perverse  intellectual  philosophy,  have  been  —  especially  for  the  last 
five-and-twenty  years  —  even  more  afraid  than  was  reasonable  of  the 
logical  deductions  to  which  their  systems  may  lead  them. 

Still,  there  is,  at  this  moment,  a  tendency  in  a  few  persons  among 
us  to  a  wild  sort  of  metaphysics,  if  their  publications  deserve  so  dig- 
nified a  name But  such  discussions  come  from  a  source  totally 

difi'erent  from  that  of  the  hard  metaphysics  of  the  old  school,  and  are 
going  in  quite  an  opposite  direction.  They  are  of  German  origin^  and 
within  the  last  few  years  have  been  modified  and  rendered  grotesque 
by  a  free  infusion  from  the  school  of  Carlyle,  whose  follies  of  form 
and  style  they  have  adopted,  without  finding  any  of  his  power 

I  do  not  mean,  however,  by  what  I  have  said,  that  we  are  careless 
of  what  is  valuable  in  practical  metaphysics.  On  the  contrary,  in 
relation  to  this  really  important  portion  of  the  science,  we  were  never 
so  much  in  earnest.  In  proof,  I  send  you  the  account,  given  in  two 
successive  reports  of  the  Blind  Asylum,  in  this  city,  partly  on  the 
education  of  a  child,  who,  at  the  age  of  two  years,  wholly  lost  her  eyes 

•  *  Edwards  on  "  The  Freedom  of  the  Will." 


M.  49.]  CONSTITUTION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  195 

and  hearing,  who  has  a  very  imperfect  taste,  and  no  smell  at  all ;  in 
short,  a  child  who  ....  has  no  idea  of  the  external  world,  and  no 
means  of  communicating  with  it  but  through  the  sense  of  touch. 
The  great  question,  of  course,  was  how  to  educate  her,  how  to  give 
her  any  ideas,  and  open  a  communication  between  her  and  the  outer 
world.  It  was  a  question  hard  for  any  ingenuity  of  intellectual  phi- 
losophy or  practical  metaphysics  to  solve 

After  being  in  the  Institution  a  little  more  than  three  years,  she 
has  been  brought  to  the  incredible  point  of  writing  —  quite  alone  — 
a  letter  to  her  mother,  of  which  a  facsimile  is  given  in  the  Report  for 

1840 She  is  an  intelligent,  rapidly  improving,  happy,  gay 

child.  Now,  this  I  call  practical  metaphysics,  and  rejoice  in  it ;  and 
when  the  book  is  printed  about  her,  —  that  will  be  printed  when  her 
education  is  further  advanced,  —  it  will,  if  I  mistake  not,  awaken  the 
attention  of  the  wiser  sort  of  intellectual  philosophers  throughout  the 
world  ;  such  philosophers,  I  mean,  as  you  and  I,  who  care  to  make 
people  happy,  and  not  to  make  them  crazy  or  quarrelsome 

To  Charles  S.  Daveis,  Portland. 

Boston,  December  3^  1840. 

The  great  political  question  which  you  were  in  doubt  about  .... 
has  been  triumphantly  settled.  Yesterday  the  flag  on  the  top  of  our 
State  House  showed  what  was  going  on  below,  and  I  could  not  help 
thinking  what  a  beautiful  and  provident  arrangement  it  was,  that 
made  it  necessary  to  cast  the  Electoral  vote  on  the  same  day,  and  at 
nearly  the  same  hour,  through  all  the  States.  And  this  brought  me 
to  think  of  the  convention  that  made  the  Constitution,  and  the  Madi- 
son papers.  Have  you  looked  them  over  1  I  say  looked  over,  for  it 
is  not  likely  many  people  will  read  them  through.  I  have  done  as 
much,  I  suppose,  as  I  ever  shall  with  them,  and  was  struck  with  the 
moderate  amount  of  talent,  knowledge,  and  practical  skill  in  govern- 
ment that  was  sho\\Ti  in  the  whole  body.  Nor  was  I  displeased  to 
see  that  it  was  so  ;  for  it  gave  so  much  the  more  prominence  and  value 
to  their  honesty.  I  do  not  believe  that  so  honest  a  body  of  men  was 
ever  collected,  for  a  similar  purpose,  since  the  world  was  made  ;  and  it 
was  their  honesty,  their  sincere  desire  to  fulfil  the  great  duty  for  which 
they  were  appointed,  which,  under  God,  saved  us,  —  not  their  talent 
or  their  wisdom,  —  and  gave  us  the  best  form  of  government  that  was 
ever  made. 


196  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1841. 

And  this  I  regard  as  a  fact  in  tlie  history  of  nations,  and  in  the 
development  of  God's  providence  in  political  affairs,  of  almost  un- 
rivalled importance,  and  full  of  benefits  to  the  future.  It  seems  from 
it,  as  if  honesty  could  do  almost  anything  ;  and  when  we  see  what  has 
been  doing  the  past  years,  and  a  long  way  back,  it  seems  almost  to 
prove  the  converse  of  the  proposition,  and  show  that  talents  alone  can 
do  nothing,  —  can  bring  nothing  to  pass  that  will  last.  Pray  make  a 
speech  to  that  effect  when  you  go  to  the  Senate  ;  or,  if  you  think  it 
would  make  friends  and  enemies,  all  round,  think  you  are  crazy,  give 
my  respects  to  Dr.  Nichols,  and  ask  him  to  preach  upon  it  next  Fast 
Day.  It  is  no  paradox  ;  it  is  a  great  truth,  and  the  old  C(fhvention 
is  as  striking  and  weighty  an  illustration  of  it,  at  the  same  time,  as 
could  be  asked  for. 

To  Hugh  S.  Legare. 

Boston,  June  16,  1841. 

My  dear  Legare,  —  Your  letter  came  last  Saturday  morning,  and 
the  same  day  there  dined  with  me  Allston,  Prescott,  Longfellow,  and 
1  Hillard,  the  editor  of  Spenser.  You  ought  to  have  been  there,  for, 
we  had  a  good  time,  wholly  extempore,  by  accidental  coming  to- 
gether, and  it  is  the  last  gathering  under  my  roof-tree,  till  the  cool 
weather  and  longer  evenings  make  such  things  worth  while.     Mean- 

V  W' hile  we  are  to  be  found  at  Woods'  Hole,  the  extreme  southerly  point 
of  Falmouth,  at  the  bend  of  Cape  Cod,  where,  as  the  saying  goes, 

)__  there  is  nothing  but  Ticknors  and  fish.  We  shall,  however,  expect 
you  if  you  come  into  these  parts,  ....  and  when  you  get  there  you 
will  find  a  decent  inn,  containing,  in  general,  nobody  but  ourselves 
and  our  servants,  the  thermometer  never  above  76°,  no  dust,  no  noise, 
no  insects,  —  except  flies,  —  no  company  ;  a  plenty  of  Spanish  books, 

fish,  and  sea-bathing Perhaps  you  can  arrange  to  come  with 

Mr.  Jeremiah  Mason,  or  some  of  our  friends  who  will  be  coming  to 
taste  the  cool  air  on  our  Point,  which  is  exactly  opposite  the  Eliza- 
beth Islands We  go  in  three  days,  and  stay  till  the  end  of 

September 

Meantime,  I  shall  receive  and  read  your  lihellus  on  Demosthenes 
with  great  interest,  and,  I  dare  say,  with  the  same  delight  with  which 
I  read  your  account  of  Demus  himself.*  It  will,  no  doubt,  savor  of 
that  ingrained  love  of  political  life  which  will  never  come  out  of  you 

*  Articles  on  "  Demosthenes  "  and  "  Athenian  Democracy,"  written  by  Mr. 
Legare  for  the  "  New  York  Review." 


M.  50.]  LETTERS  TO  HUGH  S.   LEGARlS.  197 


except  with,  all  the  rest  that  is  in  you.     As  the  Spanish  girl  tells  her 
sister  about  love,  in  one  of  the  old  Ballads,  — 

"  No  saldra  del  alma 
Sin  salir  con  ella." 

So  the  next  thing  I  shall  hear  of  you,  after  all  your  Greek  and 
Spanish,  will  be  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  or  a  foreign 
mission.  But  first  you  must  come  here,  and  swear,  like  the  knight, 
that  it  is  all  naught,  and  I  will  believe  nothing  of  what  you  say,  nor 
even  do  you  the  grace  to  think  you  perjured. 

To  Hon.  Hugh  S.  Legare,  Washington.* 

January  2,  1842. 

Many  thanks  for  your  kindness  to  the  Lyells.f  They  deserved  it. 
You  give  us  the  last  news  we  get  of  them,  and  the  last,  perhaps,  we 
ever  shall  get,  if  your  account  of  the  storm  in  which  they  left  Wash- 
ington is  to  be  taken  without  mitigation.  But  I  suspect  you  politi- 
cians there  are  so  in  the  habit  of  exaggeration,  that  fiction,  half  the 
time,  comes  as  handy  as  fact.  At  the  latest  dates,  I  notice,  the  Treas- 
ury was  so  empty  that  the  draft  of  the  proper  officer,  to  procure  funds 
to  pay  members  of  Congress,  was  refused.  I  wish  I  could  believe  it. 
The  rule  of  the  Chinese,  in  relation  to  their  doctors,  would  apply  ad- 
mirably to  all  of  you  at  Washington  ;  for  they  of  the  Celestial  Empire 
pay  their  physicians  a  salary,  which  stops  the  moment  the  payor 
becomes  indisposed,  and  is  renewed  as  soon  as  he  is  well  again.  And 
I  would  pay  you  all  for  the  time  you  are  not  in  Washington,  cutting 
off  your  rations  the  instant  you  go  there,  and  begin  to  talk  and  act. 
Besides  all  other  benefits,  we  should  get  some  of  you  here  at  the 
North,  "  the  quarters  of  the  North,"  —  Satan's  kingdom,  you  know, 
—  where  we  would  make  merry  excellently  ;  better  in  a  winter's  visit 
than  even  in  a  summer's. 

Morpeth  J  went  off  a  week  ago,  having  given  us  rather  a  severe 
tour  of  duty  here  in  the  way  of  dining  out.  You  will  have  him  in 
Washington  about  the  20th,  I  suppose,  and  will  entertain  him  there, 
no  doubt,  with  bull-fights  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  and  perhaps  a 
gay  affair  or  so  at  the  President's.  But  go  your  ways.  You  are  not 
to  be  mended.     He  is  a  good-natured  fellow,  cultivated  and  intelli- 

*  Mr.  Legare  was  now  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States. 

t  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Charles  Lyell,  afterwards  Sir  Charles  and  Lady  Lyell. 

J  Afterwards  seventh  Earl  of  Carlisle,  died  1864. 


198  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1842. 

gent,  and  generous  of  everything  but  his  own  opinions,  of  which  I 
think  you  shall  get  no  great  profit.     We  liked  him. 

We  are  all  w^ell,  and  have  just  gone  through  a  Merry  Christmas 
—  really  and  truly  merry  —  and  a  really  happy  New  Year.  All  good 
■wishes  we  send  you  ;  and  shall  expect  to  have  yours  in  return,  very 
soon,  to  stow  away  with  the  rest  in  our  great  treasury,  upon  which 
you,  too,  may  draw  when  you  like,  and  find  it,  perchance,  sounder 
and  safer  than  anything  you  are  likely  to  make  in  Washington  this 
year.     Addio,  caro. 

G.  T. 

To  Hon.  Hugh  S.  Legare,  Washington. 

March  4,  1842. 
My  dear  Legare,  — 

"  Tliey  tell  us  't  is  oiir  birthday,  and  we  '11  keep  it 
With  double  pomp  of  sadness, 
'T  is  what  the  day  deserves,"  etc.* 

The  four  poor  guns  at  sunrise  this  morning,  instead  of  the  hundred 
that  ushered  in  the  day  last  year  at  this  time,t  were  an  apt  commen- 
tary on  Mark  Anthony's  drivelling,  and  much  in  the  same  key. 
Whiggery  is  over.  Tylerism  there  never  was  any,!|:  at  least  not  in 
this  part  of  Christendom.  And  if  there  had  been  symptoms  of  either, 
the  legislature  that  adjourned  last  night,  to  the  great  delight  of  all 
sensible  people,  has  done  what  it  could  to  prevent  the  disease  from 
breaking  out.  Besides  the  foolish  and  useless  extra  session,  w^hich 
the  Whigs  ordered  by  a  strictly  party  vote,  three  quarters  of  them, 
with  the  governor  at  their  head,  went  against  a  State  tax  ;  while  the 
other  quarter,  with  about  four  fifths  of  the  Locos,  went  for  it,  and 
lost  it  by  a  majority  of  eight,  thus  putting  us  into  the  same  road  of 
repudiation  wath  other  States,  to  the  aimoyance  of  every  man  in  Bos- 
ton whose  opinion  you  or  I  should  care  a  button  about.  §  However, 
I  was  glad  to  see  in  the  paper  this  morning,  that  one  of  the  leading 
Democrats  warned  them'  yesterday,  in  his  place,  that  "  next  year  there 
will  be  a  party  in  power  who  will  dare  to  pay  the  State  debt."     In- 

*  Dryden,  "  All  for  Love,"  Act  I.  Sc.  1. 

t  Tlie  inauguration  of  General  Harrison,  as  President  of  the  United  States, 
occurred  March  4,  1841. 

X  Vice-President  Tyler  had  succeeded  to  the  office  of  President,  on  the  death 
of  General  Harrison. 

§  After  the  demise  of  the  old  Federal  party,  Mr.  Ticknor  voted  with  the 
Whigs,  without  being  always  ready  fully  to  indorse  their  action. 


^.  50.]  PASSING  POLITICS.  199 

deed  it  is  not  uncommon  now,  to  hear  good  leading  Whigs  say,  that, 
"  after  all,  we  have  made  so  many  mistakes  about  banking,  and  cur- 
rency, and  such  matters,  that  perhaps  the  other  party  have  been  as 
nearly  right  for  the  last  ten  years  as  we  have,  and  that  they  may  now 
try  their  hands  at  putting  things  in  order."  And  certainly  they  are 
in  great  luck.  You  will  just  have  gone  through  the  whole  odium  of 
the  bankrupt  law,  and  the  bankrupt  banks  ;  will  have  adjusted  every- 
thing with  England ;  and,  in  short,  done  up  whatever  disagreeable  and 
dirty  work  Van  Buren  would  have  been  unwilling  to  do,  and  then  he 
will  come  in,  with  renewed  strength,  upon  the  sober  third  thought  of 
the  people,  and  sail  upon  a  sea  of  glory  to  the  end  of  his  course. 
Huzza  for  Demus  !  * 

Webster's  letter  about  the  Creole,  concerning  which,t  of  course,  you 
may  like  to  hear  a  word,  excites  some  talk  here,  but  not  a  great  deal. 
Sumner  is  the  only  person  I  have  met  with  who  is  vehement  against 
it.  But  it  is,  of  course,  against  the  moral  sense  of  our  community, 
and  though  the  legal  sense  will  sustain  it,  that  is  not  enough. 

''Alia  van  leyes, 
Adonde  quieren  reyes," 

says  the  old  Spanish  proverb  ;  and  as  the  people  is  King  here  in  New 
England  more  than  on  any  other  spot  of  earth  since  the  days  of  the 
saurians  and  ichthyosauria,  —  who  unquestionably  made  a  pure  de- 
mocracy,—  the  people  in  the  long  run  will  settle  the  law  of  this 
matter  as  of  others.  We  made  a  bargain  with  you  south  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line,  and  we  mean  to  keep  it ;  but  when  it  comes  to 
enforcing  it,  you  must  expect  Venetian  law,  and  nothing  more.  We 
shall  give  you  the  pound  of  flesh,  but  not  a  drop  of  blood.  Negro 
slaves  are  property,  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,:}:  and  we 
are  willing  to  claim  them  as  such  for  you,  when  by  the  act  of  God,  or 
by  violence,  they  fall  into  the  British  power.  But  by  British  law  they 
are  not  property,  and  therefore,  if  England  turns  round  and  says  she 
is  too  moral  to  recognize  them  as  such,  we  shall  reply,  perhaps,  that  it 
comes  with  a  very  ill  grace  from  her,  after  having  for  eight  centuries 

*  The  Democrats  came  in  with  Mr.  Polk. 

t  See  Curtis's  "  Life  of  Webster,"  Vol.  11.  pp.  119  - 122.  :] 

J  For  those  who  are  not  familiar  with  the  details  of  oxu:  historj'  and  form  of 
government,  it  may  be  well  to  say,  that  Mr.  Ticknor  here  rfefers  to  the  right  to 
hold  slaves  as  property,  not  as  directly  established  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  but  as  indirectly  recognized  in  it,  through  the  arrangements 
made  for  the  basis  of  representation  in  Congress,  and  the  extradition  of  fugi- 
tives. 


200  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1842. 

recognized  and  profited  by  serfdom  and  slavery,  and  after  having 
planted  these  very  negroes  here,  two  centuries  ago,  against  our  will ; 
we  may  say  this,  I  have  no  doubt,  and  gird  at  her  well,  in  sundry 
well- written  diplomatic  notes  ;  but  if  it  grows  more  serious,  and  there 
is  talk  of  fighting  about  it,  we  shall  be  a  great  deal  too  moral  at  the 
North  to  belong  to  the  war-party.  Considering  how  direct  taxes  have 
been  managed,  w^e  feel  fully  justified  in  being  thus  strict  construc- 
tionists about  this  matter.  The  most  we  shall  sustain  you  in  doing, 
will  be  in  making  a  good  bargain  for  the  protection  of  black  property, 
going  through  those  ugly  Bahama  shoals  Webster  talks  about,  if  you 
are  willing  to  set  the  matter  on  the  coast  of  Africa  right,  so  that  we 
shall  not  favor  the  slave-trade  as  we  do  now,  to  our  disgrace  before  all 
Christendom.  Indeed,  this  is  likely  enough  to  be  the  whole  amount 
of  the  game  you  are  playing.  Webster's  letter  is  very  able  ;  so  able 
that,  while  it  convinces  many,  it  strengthens  the  Abolitionists,  by 
showing  how  very  disagreeable  is  the  true  constitutional  ground,  which 
hangs  a  man  as  a  pirate,  for  ha\ing  been  willing  to  jeopard  his  life  in 
order  to  obtain  the  freedom  in  w^hich  that  same  Constitution  says  he 
was  born. 

The  moral  I  draw  from  all  this  is,  that  as  you  have  nothing  to 
hope  as  a  Whig  party,  at  Washington,  I  trust  you  will  make  up  your 
minds  to  do  your  duty  to  the  country,  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it 
plain  that  you  mean  to  do  it,  being  beyond  fear  or  favor. 

Yours  faithfully. 


G.  T. 


To  Eev.  W.  E.  Chaining,  Boston. 


Boston,  April  20,  1842. 
I  am  rejoiced  to  hear  w^hat  you  tell  me,  of  Chancellor  Kent's  opin- 
ion, and  I  wish  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  might  declare 
it  to  be  the  law  of  the  land.  On  the  subject  of  our  relations  with  the 
South,  and  its  slavery,  w^e  must  —  as  I  have  always  thought  —  do  one 
of  two  things  ;  either  keep  honestly  the  bargain  of  the  Constitution,  as 
it  shall  be  interpreted  by  the  authorities  to  whom  we  have  agreed  to 
confide  its  interpretation,  —  of  which  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  is  the  chief  and  safest,  —  or  declare  honestly  that  we  can  no 
longer  in  our  consciences  consent  to  keep  it,  and  break  it,  I  therefore 
rejoice  at  every  legal  decision  which  limits  and  restrains  the  curse  of 
slavery  ;  both  because  each  such  restriction  is  in  itself  so  great  a  good, 
and  because  it  makes  it  more  easy  to  preserve  the  Union.  I  fear  the 
recent  decision,  in  the  case  of  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  works  the 


M.  50.]  LETTER  TO  PRINCE  JOHN.  201 

other  way,  but  hope  it  Avill  not  turn  out  so,  when  we  have  it  duly 
reported  ;  and  I  fear,  however  the  decisions  may  stand,  that  the  ques- 
tion of  a  dissolution  of  the  Union  is  soon  to  come  up  for  angry  dis- 
cussion."^ 

To  Prince  John,  of  Saxony. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  March  15,  1842. 

My  Lord,  —  I  received  duly  your  very  kind  letter,  and  the  beauti- 
ful copy  of  the  translation  of  Dante's  "  Purgatorio  "  that  accompanied 
it.  For  both,  I  pray  you  to  accept  my  best  thanks.  As  in  the  case 
of  the  "  Inferno,"  I  find  the  translation  conscientiously  accurate  ;  but 
the  notes  are  quite  different  from  those  you  gave  before,  the  "  Inferno" 
requiring  historical,  and  the  "  Purgatorio  "  requiring  theological  eluci- 
dations. With  the  last  I  have  been  extremely  struck.  It  must  have 
cost  you  great  labor  and  a  very  peculiar  course  of  study  to  enable  you 
to  prepare  them.  But  they  are  worth  all  the  trouble  they  gave  you. 
From  the  "  Ottimo  Comento,"  through  Landino,  and  so  on,  down  to  the 
last  of  the  annotators,  no  one  has  made  the  metaphysical  difficulties 
of  the  "  Purgatorio  "  so  intelligible.  I  trust  you  are  employed  on  the 
"  Paradiso,"  and  that  I  shall  soon  enjoy  the  results  at  which  you  will 
arrive.  Dante  is  a  mare  magnum  for  adventure,  and  every  time  I 
read  him  I  make,  or  think  I  make,  new  discoveries. 

I  take  the  liberty  to  send  you,  with  this,  Stephens's  work  on  the 
aboriginal  antiquities  found  in  the  woods  of  Central  America.  You 
will  find  it,  I  think,  very  curious,  especially  in  the  comparisons  it 
will  suggest  with  the  earliest  remains  of  ancient  art  in  Egypt  and 
Asia 

In  the  same  parcel  you  will  find  two  newspapers,  of  the  vast  size  in 
which  they  are  often  published  in  this  country.  The  one  printed 
at  New  York  contains  Mrs.  Jameson's  translation  of  the  Princess 
Amelie's  "  Oheim  "  ;  the  one  printed  in  Boston  contains  an  original 
translation  of  the  "  Verlobung."  Of  each  of  these  papers  eight  or  ten 
thousand  copies  were  printed.  Please  to  give  those  I  send  you,  with 
my  best  respects,  to  the  Princess.  It  will  amuse  her  to  see  how  popu- 
lar she  is  in  the  New  World. 

My  family  are  all  well,  and  we  have  had  great  health  and  happiness 

t 

*  Mr.  Ticknor  often  said,  that  after  his  visit  to  Washington  in  1824,  he  ahvays 
felt  that  a  civil  war  might  grow,  sooner  or  later,  out  of  the  question  of  slavery. 
He  dreaded  this,  and  always  desired  its  postponement,  if  it  could  not  be  averted, 
on  the  ground  that  every  year  the  resources  of  the  North  were  strengthened,  and 
its  power  to  maintain  the  cause  of  the  Union  increased. 
9* 


202  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  [1842. 

and  little  sorrow  since  we  saw  you.     We  all  remember  Dresden,  and 
its  hospitalities,  with  much  pleasure  and  gratitude,  and  hope  we  have 
friends  there  who  will  not  entirely  forget  us.     Mrs.  Ticknor  desires 
that  her  acknowledgments  and  compliments  may  be  offered  to  you. 
I  remain,  my  dear  Prince, 

Very  faithfully  and  affectionately  yours, 

George  Ticknor. 

From  Prince  John,  of  Saxony. 

Dresden,  4  July,  1842. 

Dear  Sir,*  —  I  have  received,  with  great  pleasure,  your  letter  and 
the  books  and  newspapers  you  had  the  kindness  to  send  me.  Mr. 
Stephens's  work  seems  to  be  very  interesting.  I  have,  methinks,  found 
some  time  ago  a  notice  of  it,  in  the  "  Augsburger  Allgemeine  Zeitung." 
My  sister  being  in  this  moment  at  Florence,  the  newspapers  are  to 
make  a  journey  into  the  hel  paese  Id  dove  'I  si  suona.  I  am  sure  the 
author  will  be  much  charmed  by  it,  being  not  insensible  to  success. 
The  annotations  and  preface  to  the  "  Uncle  "  are  very  interesting  for 
an  European  and  German,  because  they  show  the  difference  of  views 
and  sentiments  in  the  two  peoples.  Mrs.  Jameson,  the  translator, 
was  here,  and  is  personally  known  to  my  sister. 

I  am  glad  you  were  content  with  the  "  Purgatorio  "  and  my  theo- 
logical annotations  to  it.  These  last  are  —  like  all  hardly  got  chil- 
dren —  favorite  children  with  me.  The  translation  of  the  "  Para- 
diso  "  is  finished,  but  the  studies  which  I  must  undertake,  for  the 
annotation  to  it,  are  yet  more  difficult  than  they  were  for  the  "  Pur- 
gatorio "  ;  and  yet  I  would  not  give  out  something  incomplete,  so  that 
the  publication  of  this  last  part  may  yet  be  deferred  some  time.  But 
I  console  myseK  with  the  nonum  ijrematur  in  annum  of  Horace. 

I  am  charmed  to  hear  that  you  have  had  no  sorrow  in  your  family. 
For  myself,  I  cannot  say  quite  the  same  thing.  My  wife  has  suffered 
this  last  spring  from  a  very  serious  illness,  which  presented  even,  one 
day,  an  immediate  danger  for  her  life,  and  was  followed  by  a  long  and 

painful  convalescence Now,  by  the  mercy  of  God,  I  hope  to  be 

almost  relieved  of  every  apprehension  for  the  future.  IVIy  children, 
likewise,  were  almost  all  more  or  less  sick  at  the  same  time,  yet  none 
so  seriously,  and  they  are  now  all  well  again. 

In  Europe  all  is  now  peaceful,  at  least  for  the  moment.     The  mis- 

*  Prince  John  always  wrote  to  Mr.  Ticknor  in  English,  and  the  correspond- 
ence continued  till  the  end  of  Mr.  Ticknor's  life. 


M.  50.]  MR.   AND  MRS.   LYELL.  203 

fortune  of  Hamburgh  has  made  a  great  sensation  in  the  whole  of 
Germany.  Our  affairs  in  Saxony,  particularly,  go  on  well.  Trade 
and  industry  are  flourishing,  and  agriculture,  which  was  till  now  a 
little  neglected,  begins  to  make  good  progress. 

You  will,  perhaps,  find  a  notable  difference  in  the  character  of  my 
writing,  and  I  hope  not  for  the  worse.  I  am  indebted  for  this  change 
to  the  New  World,  having  taken,  this  winter,  lessons  in  writing  after 
the  American  method,  as  one  calls  it  in  Germany.  Now,  it  may  be,  or 
not  be,  an  invention  of  the  New  World.  I,  for  my  part,  am  very  con- 
tent with  it,  having  till  now  been  much  censured  for  my  bad  writing. 

I  finish  these  lines  by  praying  you  to  commend  me  to  Mrs.  Ticknor's 

recollection,  and  by  the  expressions  of  the  highest  consideration,  with 

which  I  am 

Your  affectionate 

John,  Duke  op  Saxony. 

To  Eev.  H.  H.  Milman,  London. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  May  7,  1842. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  A  recent  and  most  pleasant  visit  we  have  had 
from  our  mutual  friends, — as  I  trust  I  may  now  call  them, — the  Lyells, 
reminds  me  that  I  owe  an  acknowledgment  for  your  very  agreeable 
letter,  written  to  me  last  winter,  and  that  I  have  a  subject  on  which 
to  speak  to  you,  that  will  make  you  glad  to  listen  to  me.  For  I  know 
you  will  always  be  glad  to  hear  about  the  Lyells  ;  and  I  am  sure  you 
can  hear  nothing  from  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  about  them  which 
would  not  give  you  pleasure.  Their  visit  has  thus  far  certainly  been 
successful.  Mr.  Lyell  has  found  enough  in  the  geology  of  the  country 
to  reward  him  for  his  trouble,  and  enough  intelligent  geologists  to 
help  him  on,  and  show  him  what  he  wanted  to  see.  After  his  long 
tour  at  the  South,  therefore,  in  the  States  where  the  presence  of  slav- 
ery infects  everything,  and  renders  the  travelling  —  especially  to 
strangers  —  disagreeable,  he  has  just  left  us  —  first  stopping  a  fort- 
night in  my  family  —  for  a  still  longer  tour  in  the  West  and  in  Can- 
ada  But  to  Mrs,  Lyell  these  varieties,  as  far  as  they  chance  to 

be  disagreeable,  are  not  of  consequence,  so  long  as  geology  goes  on  well. 
She  is  one  of  those  who  "  make  a  sunshine  in  a  shady. place,"  and  I 
really  believe  she  has  enjoyed  herself,  almost  every^vhere  she  has  been. 
Certainly  everybody  has  been  delighted  with  her 

And  this  reminds  me  of  what  I  said  in  a  former  letter  about  educa- 
tion in  Boston,  and  your  reply  to  it,  that  Boston  is,  probably,  in  ad- 


204  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TTCKNOR.  [-1842. 

vance  of  the  other  cities  of  the  country  in  this  respect.  It  is  so.  But 
Boston  is  often  not  in  advance  of  the  villages,  and  townships,  in  the 
interior  of  Massachusetts,  and  of  New  England.  On  the  contrary, 
they  are  often  in  advance  of  us.  In  illustration  of  this,  I  send  you 
what  I  regard  as  the  most  curious  and  important  document,  concerning 
popular  education,  that  has  ever  been  published.  I  mean  one  of  the 
annual  reports  condensed — and  agreeably  condensed — from  the  re- 
turns made  to  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  for  the  3,103  public 

free  schools  of  the  State The  whole  of  the  statistics  in  this 

volume  are,  I  think,  curious  ;  but  I  would  call  your  attention  to  the 
subjects  and  books  taught,  to  the  money  paid,  and  to  the  occasional 
remarks  of  the  committee,  nine  out  of  ten  of  the  members  of  which 
must  have  been  originally  educated  in  the  schools  they  now  control. 

....  I  add  for  Mrs.  Milman,  with  my  best  respects,  a  little  vol- 
ume recently  printed  by  my  friend  Mr.  Longfellow,  asking  her  not  to 
omit  the  Preface.  Mr.  Longfellow  is  just  gone  to  the  Ehine,  to  try 
to  mend  his  health  in  some  of  its  baths,  and  when  he  stops  in  London 
a  few  days  next  October,  I  will  take  the  liberty  to  tell  him  he  may 
call  on  you  in  my  name,  if  you  happen  to  be  in  town.  He  is  a  most 
amiable  and  agi'eeable  person,  of  whom  we  are  all  very  fond.  Mrs. 
Ticknor  desires  her  kind  regards  may  be  given  to  Mrs.  ]\Iilman  and 

yourself. 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

George  Ticknor. 

To  Count  Adolphe  de  Circourt,  Paris. 

Boston,  May  30,  1842. 
My  dear  Count  Circourt,  —  In  your  very  kind  and  most  agreeable 
letter,  "svTitten  last  February,  you  ask  me  to  write  to  you  on  the  polit- 
ical prospects  of  the  United  States.  More  than  once  I  have  deter- 
mined to  do  so,  but  have  been  comj)elled  to  forbear,  because  every- 
tliing  was  so  unsettled,  and  it  was  so  uncertain  what  course  would  be 
finally  taken.  Now,  however,  we  begin,  I  think,  to  see  some  of  the 
results  at  which  we  must,  before  long,  necessarily  arrive,  and  having 
something  really  to  say,  I  shall  have  much  pleasure  in  saying  it  to 
you.  But  you  must  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  in  the  nature  of  prophecy, 
and,  therefore,  rather  consider  it  as  the  ground  for  your  own  specula- 
tions, than  as  anvthing  more  sure  and  solid,* 

*  In  writing  to  M.  Legare  about  this  time  on  politics,  Mr.  Ticknor  gives  what 
he  says  "may  be  taken  for  the  tone  of  opinion  here  at  this  moment,  which  I 


M.  50.]  FINANCES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  205 

The  refusal  of  President  Tyler,  last  suininer,  to  sign  the  bill  for  a 
National  Bank,  gave,  as  you  know,  an  opportunity  to  Mr.  Clay  to 
attempt  to  prevent  Tyler  from  being  again  a  candidate  for  the  Presi- 
dency ;  indeed,  to  attempt  to  compel  him  to  resign.  In  this  last  he 
failed,  but  he  necessarily  broke  up  the  party  of  both  of  them,  —  the 
Whig  party,  —  of  which  Mr.  Clay  retains  much  the  larger  portion,  but 
of  which  neither  has  enough  to  command  a  majority  in  the  nation,  or 
in  Congress.  Of  course,  effectual  measures  cannot  be  taken,  except 
under  a  great  pressure  of  popular  opinion,  compelling  Congress  to  act 
for  the  good  of  the  nation.  This  is  the  present  state  of  affairs,  in  ref- 
erence to  practical  legislation.  President  Tyler  and  his  Cabinet  are 
in  a  small  minority,  both  in  Congress  and  with  the  people. 

Meantime,  large  portions  of  the  country  are  suffering.  At  the 
South  and  Southwest  —  where  individuals  and  States  borrowed  rash- 
ly and  unwisely  —  there  is  great  distress.  To  individuals,  the  Bank- 
rupt Law  is  bringing  appropriate  relief ;  but  to  the  States,  the  pro- 
cess must  be  more  slow.  Some  of  them,  like  Illinois  and  Indiana, 
never  will  pay.  They  have  not  the  means,  and  cannot  get  the  means. 
They  are  honest  and  hopeless  bankrupts,  and  will  do  what  they  can,  but 
it  will  not  be  much.  Others,  like  Mississippi,  —  which  repudiated  its 
obligations  so  shamelessly,  —  Avill  be  compelled  to  pay  by  the  force  of 
public  opinion.  Others,  like  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  are  troubled 
by  the  pressure  of  the  times,  but  are  able  to  pay,  and  have  no  thought 
of  avoiding  it  or  attempting  to  avoid  it.  All  the  rest  —  eighteen  or 
twenty  —  are  in  no  trouble,  nor  are  likely  to  be.  The  lesson  will  have 
been  an  useful  one,  but  the  final  loss,  except  in  the  atrocious  case  of 
the  Pennsylvania  United  States  Bank,  will  be  small  to  any  one.  But 
Europe,  I  trust,  will  lend  us  no  more  money.  It  is  for  the  benefit 
of  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  that  she  should  not.  In  New  England 
our  credit  has  been  untouched,  and  our  industry  prosperous.  At  the 
South,  and  in  the  slave  States,  they  are  poor  and  growing  poorer,  even 
where  they  are  not  in  debt 

Now  at  this  moment  the  country  is  in  debt,  perhaps  to  the  amount 
of  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.  The  sum  is  trifling,  no  doubt,  but 
it  is  wholly  odious  to  the  people  to  be  in  debt  at  all.  The  means,  too, 
for  raising  a  sufficient  revenue  are  abundant  ;  the  country,  notwith- 
standing the  indebtedness  of  the  five  or  six  suffering  States,  and  the 

gather  at  Dr.  Bowditch's  old  office  [the  Massachiisetts  Hospital  Life  Insurance 
Office],  wfiere  I  am  an  unworthy  vice-president,  and  where  I  meet  most  of  the 
men  whose  affairs  and  opinions  direct  the  times." 


206  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1842. 

multitudinous  bankruptcies  of  individuals,  is  rich,  and  was  never  at 
any  moment  more  productive  than  it  is  now.  We  could,  without 
injury,  bear  taxation  to  thrice  the  amount  that  would  be  needful  to 
put  the  finances  of  the  general  government  into  the  best  possible  con- 
dition. But  this  subject  can  be  approached  only  through  a  discussion 
and  adjustment  of  the  whole  tariff ;  and  the  tariff  is  a  name  that, 
more  than  any  other,  rouses  up  the  sectional  feelings  and  interests,  and 
disturbs  the  passions  of  the  country.  It  must,  however,  be  discussed 
and  settled,  and  that,  too,  in  the  course  of  the  months  of  June  and 
July.  The  country  requires  it,  and  it  must  be  done.  That  a  really 
wise  and  judicious  tariff  will  be  made,  I  do  not  venture  to  hope  ;  but 
no  doubt,  as  it  seems  to  me,  a  tariff  equal  to  the  wants  of  the  govern- 
ment will  be  passed,  and  after  that  there  will  be  no  more  talk  of 
financial  difficulties.  It  is  quite  ridiculous  that  they  have  ever  ex- 
isted, and  has  been  wholly  owing  to  the  state  of  parties  ;  but  the  mass 
of  the  people,  who  have  been  forgotten  in  the  strife  for  office  and 
power,  are  the  real  masters,  and  they  have  plainly  determined  that 
their  interests  shall  no  longer  be  sacrificed.  Congress  will  obey,  and, 
with  the  settled  finances  of  the  country,  its  prosperity  will  return. 

On  our  foreign  relations,  I  have  always  told  you,  I  have  no  anxiety. 
Mr.  Webster's  wisdom  and  moderation  are  a  guaranty  for  peace, 
and  Lord  Ashburton  has  so  found  it.  Everything  in  our  relations 
with  England  will  be  settled,  and  that  speedily,  and  placed  on  a  more 
firm  and  satisfactory  foundation  than  they  have  been  before,  since  the 
two  countries  were  separated.  The  only  point  of  any  real  difficulty 
has  been  found  to  be  the  Northeastern  Boundary.  This  Mr.  Webster 
has  skilfully  composed,  by  asking  Maine  and  Massachusetts  to  appoint 
commissioners,  with  full  powers  to  consent  to  such  an  adjustment 
as  they  may  deem  satisfactory,  and  honorable,  to  their  respective 
States 

The  other  points  —  the  affairs  of  the  Creole  and  the  Caroline,  Avith 
the  right  of  search  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  as  explained  by  Lord  Aber- 
deen —  are  very  easy  to  adjust,  and  are  in  fact  adjusted.  The  whole, 
too,  has  been  done,  as  between  the  principal  negotiators,  in  the  best 
possible  spirit.  Mr.  Webster  told  me  the  other  clay,  that  he  did  not 
think  a  person,  more  fitted  to  the  place  he  fills  than  Lord  Ashburton, 
could  have  been  found  in  the  Queen's  dominions  ;  and  I  understand 
Lord  Ashburton,  on  his  part,  is  equally  well  pleased.  The  English 
affairs,  then,  I  consider  settled  ;  though,  when  the  treaty  comes  before 
the  Senate,  there  will  be  some  factious  opposition  to  it,  and  though 
you  will  not  have  the  o£B.cial  annunciation  for  a  couple  of  months. 


JE.  50.]  LEBANON  SPRINGS.  207 

Mr.  Webster's  letter  to  tlie  governor  of  ]\Iaiiie  has  done  more  for  this 
result  than  any  other  thing.  It  was  a  caijo  d'opera,  and  left  nothing 
for  faction  to  take  advantage  of.  ...  . 

The  little  afiair  of  Rhode  Island  has  tended,  I  think,  to  strengthen 
our  institutions,  by  settling  the  principle  that  the  people  of  a  State 
have  no  right  to  change  their  Constitutions,  except  in  the  forms  pro- 
vided by  law.  The  case  was  this.  The  Constitution,  or  Charter, 
of  Rhode  Island  was  one  sufficiently  absurd,  which  had  been  given 
by  Charles  II.,  and  had  long  since  ceased  to  be  suited  to  the  peo- 
ple. But  the  landholders,  who  had  all  the  power,  refused  to  give 
it  up  until  lately,  when  the  mass  of  the  people  became  so  exasperated 
that,  without  observing  the  forms  prescribed  by  law,  they  made  a 
Constitution  for  themselves,  and  undertook  to  carry  it  into  practical 
operation.  Everything  but  bloodshed  followed  ;  but  the  popular 
party  was  completely  put  down,  and  now  a  suitable  Constitution  wall 
be  legally  formed  and  peaceably  carried  into  execution.  It  consti- 
tutes a  strong  case,  because  the  people  were  originally  right,  and  only 
erred  in  the  forms,  and  in  the  passions  they  indulged.  But  enough  of 
politics. 

To  Hon.  Hugh  S.  Legare,  Washington. 

Lebanon  Springs,  June  9,  1842. 
Dear  Legare,  —  A  nice  place  it  is,  to  be  sure,  as  you  say,  and  I 
do  not  wonder  that  you  spent  sundry  happy  days  here  last  summer, 
except  that  there  were  so  many  people  in  it.  We  came  a  week  ago, 
and  had  the  Prescotts  and  Gray,^  till  day  before  yesterday,  when 
they  returned,  and  left  us  to  enjoy  this  rich  and  beautiful  nature  quite 
alone.  It  is  really  delicious.  Don't  you  think  we  can  tempt  you  to 
give  up  at  Washington  and  come  here  l  We  can  offer  3^ou  the  beau- 
tiful woods  and  valleys  you  know  of,  and  as  many  sheep  as  your  shep- 
herd's craft  can  manage.  It  would  be  better  than  being  the  Poimenos 
Ldon ;  especially  when  the  people  don't  follow.  Not  a  soul  has  dis- 
turbed our  peaceful  repose,  except  that  Colonel  Colden  and  the  Dick- 
enses  came,  one  night  after  w^e  were  gone  to  bed,  and  cleared  out  the 
next  day  at  noon,  much  grieved  that  the  Shakers  were  so  insensible 
to  his  widespread  merit,  and  so  little  respecters  of  persons,  as  to  refuse 
to  show  him  any  of  their  mysteries,  or  managements  touching  men  or 

*  Judge  and  Mrs.  Prescott,  Mr.  W.  H.  Prescott  and  his  daiigliter,  and  Mr. 
F.  C.  Gray, 


208  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1842. 


beasts.  We  have,  therefore,  all  the  endless  piazzas  of  Mr.  Bentley's 
huge,  out-squandered  house,  and  all  the  fine  drives  in  the  Berkshire 
valleys,  as  much  to  ourselves  as  if  there  were  no  fashionables  in  New 
York  ;  and,  having  stipulated  beforehand  for  a  separate  establishment 
and  table,  we  may  hold  out,  perhaps,  even  after  the  first  irruption  be- 
gins.    But,  as  soon  as  the  Philistines ,  are  really  upon  us,  we  shall  be 

gone  ;   and  that  will  no  doubt  be  in  the  course  of  ten  days 

Don't  tell  of  us,  but  come  and  see  ;  a  word  I  utter  just  as  if  it  could 
have  any  meaning  in  political  ears.  Well,  I  am  sorry  for  you.  As 
old  Cooper  said,  you  were  really  made  for  better  things,  and,  when 
you  are  fairly  turned  out  of  ofiice,  it  is  within  the  limits  of  a  miracu- 
lous possibility  that  you  should  find  it  out.  Perhaps  the  revelation 
will  come  to  you  at  Woods'  Hole,  which  he  of  the  Lamentations* 
calls  my  Patmos,  or,  more  euphoniously,  "  Ticknor's  Patmos." 

....  Write  to  me,  and  tell  me  of  some  glimpses  of  sunshine  in 
Congress  ;  some  ground  for  rejoicing  in  the  country  ;  something  that 
shall  make  a  man  submit  more  willingly  to  bear  the  name  of  an 
American.  They  that  were  in  Hamburg  when  it  was  burnt  up,  or  in 
Cape  Francois  when  it  was  sunk,  were  better  off  than  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  will  be  in  London  or  Paris  a  year  hence,  if  in  the  in- 
terval things  go  downward  as  fast  as  they  have  a  year  past.  Take 
that  to  the  next  Cabinet  meeting,  and  show  it  to  President  Tyler. 
They  say  he  loves  plain  truth,  and  seldom  gets  it ;  but  I  rather  think 
that,  like  other  men,  he  gets  as  much  as  he  wants,  probably  more. 

Addio,  caro.  You  see  how  this  gentle  nature  mollifies  mine,  and 
makes  me  gracious  beyond  my  wont. 

Always  yours  in  good  faith, 

Geo.  T. 

Mrs.  T.  sends  kindest  regards,  and  will  shortly  prepare  a  pastoral 
for  you.  My  daughter,  too,  desires  to  be  remembered.  Piccinina 
talks  of  you.  We  all  want  to  see  you.  My  next,  I  suppose,  will  be 
from  the  Classic  "Hole,"  —  Jeremiah's  "Patmos,"  —  a  more  euphu- 
istical  combination  of  four  words  than  has  been  made  since  the  days 
of  Lilv.     I  am  vain  of  it. 

You  will  probably  gather  from  the  bucolic  entusimuzy  of  my  letter 
that  I  never  was  in  this  part  of  the  world  before.  It  is  so.  All 
Berkshire  is  new  to  me  ;  but  I  think  we  shall  come  here  often  here- 
after. It  is  more  agreeable,  as  well  as  more  picturesque,  than  I  ex- 
pected. 

*  Hon.  Jeremiah  Masou. 


M.  51.]  "  CONQUEST  OF  MEXICO."  209 


To  William  H.  Prescott,  Nahant. 

Woods'  Hole,  Sunday,  August  14,  1842. 

My  dear  William,  —  You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  the  rest  of 
your  iiiaiiuscript  is  safe.*  ....  We  were  just  ready  for  it,  having,  a 
few  hours  before  it  came,  reached  the  antepenultimate  chapter  of  the 
first  portion  of  the  manuscript.  Last  night,  when  we  went  to  bed,  we 
left  poor  Montezuma  moaning  out  his  life,  in  the  hands  of  his  atro- 
cious conqueror.  I  cannot  bear  to  have  his  sufferings  prolonged,  and 
as  the  next  chapter  despatches  him,  we  shall  go  through  it  at  once.  I 
should  feel  much  more  satisfaction  if  it  were  Cortes  himself,  who 
richly  deserves  all  that  Montezuma  suffers,  and  more  too. 

Meanwhile,  I  am  going  slowly  through  the  whole  the  second  time  ; 
not  ha\dng,  till  to-day,  finished  the  second  book.  The  first  time 
going  over,  especially  in  the  more  interesting  and  exciting  passages,  I 
am  quite  unable  to  attend  to  the  smaller  matters  of  style  and  phrase- 
ology. But  what  I  do  note  is  put  on  separate  paper.  Afterwards  it 
is  jotted  down,  in  pencil,  on  your  manuscript.  The  whole  is  not 
much  ;  and  even  in  the  little  I  have  seen  fit  to  mark,  I  do  not  sup- 
pose you  will  often  agree  with  me,  and  shall  never  know  whether  you 
do  or  not,  for  they  are  trifles  so  unimportant  that  I  shall  not  remem- 
ber them  myself,  when  I  read  again  the  same  passages. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  your  success.  The  subject  is  not  so  grand 
and  grave,  and  you  do  not  have  such  oj)portunity  for  Avisdom  and 
deep  inquiry,  as  in  "  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  but  it  is  much  more 
brilliant  and  attractive.  It  reads  like  romance,  and  there  is  a  sort  of 
epic  completeness  about  it,  which  adds  greatly  to  its  power  and  effect. 
But  these  are  things  we  will  talk  about  hereafter 

We  are  all  well,  ....  and  we  have  gone  on  with  great  quietness 
and  peace  since  I  wrote  you  last.  Mr.  Mason  and  his  two  daughters 
spent  three  days  here,  last  week  ;  but  they  were  up  stairs  all  the  fore- 
noons, so  that  I  have  been  lord  of  all  below.  In  the  afternoon  Jeremiah 
came  out  with  his  politics,  dark  enough.     But  Gallio  careth  for  none 

of  these  things We  deserve  what  we  get,  and  shall  deserve  it 

if  we  get  worse Tyler  will,  I  think,  take  a  full  loco-foco  Cabi- 
net, and  sail  on  a  sea  of  glory  to  the  end  of  his  term,  when  he  will 
disappear,  and  never  be  heard  of  afterwards.     In  six  months  it  will  be 

matter  of  historical  doubt  whether  such  a  man  ever  existed 

Addio,  caro. 

G.  T. 

*  Manuscript  of  the  "  Conquest  of  Mexico." 

N 


210  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  D8^2. 


To  Hon.  Hugh  S.  Legare,  Washington. 

Boston,  October  2,  1842. 

My  dear  Legare,  —  You  will  be  curious  to  know  how  Webster's 
speech  ^  has  taken  with  the  people  here  ;  and  as  there  is  no  question 
about  it,  I  write  just  a  line  to  say  that  the  success  is  extraordinary.  I 
did  not  hear  it,  but  all  who  were  there  say  the  effect  was  prodigious. 
....  The  excitement  in  the  afternoon,  about  town,  was  obvious  in 
walking  through  the  streets,  where  knots  of  men  were  everywhere 
discussing  it.  Next  day,  —  yesterday,  —  on  'Change,  it  was  plain  the 
effect  was  produced.  Things  had  taken  a  new  turn.  Mr.  Webster 
will  be  let  alone,  to  do  as  he  likes.  The  courage  by  which  this  has 
been  accomplished  is  the  most  remarkable  thing  about  it,  in  my  esti- 
mation ;  the  next,  the  perfect  tact  with  which  it  was  done,  notwith- 
standing the  resentment  he  felt,  which  must  constantly  have  prompted 
him  to  go  too  far.  The  Prophet  t  was  present,  and  was  filled  with 
admiration.  So  was  everybody,  do^vn  to  my  tailor,  bookseller,  and 
bookbinder.  Webster,  I  think,  is  looked  on  as  a  greater  man  to-day 
in  Boston  than  he  ever  was  before.  Certainly  he  is  more  felt  to  have 
been  injured 

We  left   Patmos   on  Wednesday  morning That  villanous 

hoarseness,  and  slight  cough,  which  disturbed  my  lady  wife  when  you 
were  with  us,  is  not  wholly  gone,  and,  therefore,  it  is  not  unlikely  we 
shall  take  a  turn  of  a  few  days  on  the  Worcester  Hills,  —  the  sover- 
eign'st  thing  on  earth  for  such  a  cold.  I  am  quite  resolved  it  shall 
not  run  into  the  cold  weather,  else  I  might  be  obliged  to  bring  her  as 
far  south  as  Washington,  —  a  nauseous  medicament,  not  to  be  thought 
of  except  in  the  failure  of  all  others.  However,  I  have  no  fear  of  such 
a  dose,  and  only  mention  it  by  way  of  mere  impertinence. 

We  missed  you  grievously  ;  but  played  a  few  games  of  whist  through 
our  tears  the  night  after. 

To  Hon.  Hugh  S.  Legare,  Washington. 

Boston,  October  21, 1842. 

Dear  Legare,  —  Your  friends  in  Washington  must  be  wise  men, 

and  sagacious  politicians,  to  complain  of  the  mighty  Pan's  speech  in 

Faneuil  Hall.     It  is  the  only  thing  that  has  done  them  any  good  for 

months,  and  no  other  man  in  New  England  would  have  been  listened 

*  This  speech  was  to  explain  Mr.  Webster's  course  in  remaining  in  the  Cabi- 
net of  President  Tyler.     See  Cui'tis's  "  Life  of  Webster,"  Vol.  II,  p.  142. 
t  Mr.  Mason. 


^.51.]  LETTERS  TO  H.   S.   LEGARE.  211 

to  if,  on  that  spot,  he  had  dared  to  say  half  so  much  in  favor  of  the 
Administration.  He  was  every  moment  upon  the  brink  of  all  his 
audience  hated,  and  it  is  still  a  wonder  how  he  got  through  without 
being  mobbed.  That  what  he  said  should  not  please  everybody,  as 
much  as  it  did  the  good  people  of  Boston,  is  natural  enough,  and  in- 
deed inevitable.     No  speech  could  suit  more  than  a  small  fraction  of 

a  party,  falling  to  pieces  as  fast  as  the  Whig  party  is When  he 

delivered  it  he  was  in  a  pretty  savage  temper,  from  all  I  hear.  I  only 
wish  he  had  been  a  little  more  provoked,  and  laid  one  of  his  great 
paws  on  the  Administration.  How  he  would  have  been  glorified  ! 
Every  cap  in  that  vast  multitude  would  have  been  in  the  air.  But, 
unluckily,  he  was  in  the  humor  of  speaking  well  of  the  President  and 
all  the  rest  of  you  in  the  Cabinet,  and  told  Mason,  and  his  other  friends 
who  talked  with  him,  all  about  your  paper  on  the  Creole,  and  what 
other  people  did  to  help  on  affairs.  How  he  feels  now  I  don't  know, 
for,  since  the  morning  after  the  explosion,  nobody  has  seen  him.  He 
has  been  chiefly  in  New  Hampshire,  and  writes  to  nobody,  and  seems 
to  care  for  the  opinion  of  nobody.     Look  out. 

To  Hon.  H.  S.  Legare. 

BosTOic,  April  16,  1843. 

Our  spring  has  been  anything  but  tempting,  and  if  I  had  succeeded 
in  decoying  you  here,  a  fortnight  or  three  weeks  ago,  you  would  have 
found  yourself  in  the  midst  of  a  succession  of  snow-storms  ;  for  which, 
I  suppose,  you  would  have  held  me  responsible,  and  which  certainly 
would  have  made  me  the  more  cross,  if  you  had  been  here  to  suffer 
from  them.  The  last  of  the  ice,  however,  I  am  happy  to  say,  is  now 
disappearing  from  the  dark  corners  under  the  fences,  and  the  swelling 
buds  show  that  spring  is  to  come  over  the  hills  with  a  rush  that  "will 
bring  summer  quickly  on  her  traces. 

Meantime,  what  are  your  projects  ?  .  .  .  .  Why  not  come  North 
and  make  us  a  little  visit  ?  We  shall  keep  in  towm,  I  think,  but  am 
not  quite  sure,  till  the  end  of  June  ;  and  I  dare  say  we  shall  be  here 
in  the  middle  of  it,  when  Webster  will  make  his  speech  at  Bunker's 
Hill.  Why  can't  you  come  then  1  We  will  abuse  you  handsomely, 
as  one  of  Tyler's  men,  and  I  dare  say  might  make  some  money  by 
showing  you  in  a  cage,  which  is  worth  thinking  about  in  these  hard 
times 

We  are  all  well,  and  just  beginning  to  enjoy  drives  into  the  country, 
where  the  brooks  are  in  all  their  beauty,  and  the  birds  beginning  to 


212  LIFE  OF  GEOPcGE  TICENOR.  [1843. 

rejoice  at  tlie  disappearance  of  the  snow But  when  July  suns 

begin  to  scorch,  we  shall  escape  to  our  Patmos,  and  look  for  a  visit 
from  you  then,  at  any  rate.  It  is  the  pepper-corn  rent  due  from  you, 
aanually,  by  prescription  ;  and  we  have  no  mind  to  give  it  up. 

This  is  the  last  letter  that  remains  of  a  truly  delightful  cor- 
respondence ;  and  in  the  one  to  Mr.  Kenyon,  which  stands  next 
in  these  pages,  Mr.  Ticknor  describes  the  sudden  shock,  and  the 
striking  scenes,  with  which  the  warm  and  satisfying  friendship 
was  ended,  that  had  grown  closer  between  him  and  Mr.  Legare 
as  years  went  on.  Such  companionship  was,  indeed,  hard  to 
relinquish,  and  it  was  sad  to  part  from  the  hopes  for  their  coun- 
try that  Mr.  Ticknor  had  rested  on  his  friend's  talents  and  prin- 
ciples. 

To  Mr.  John  Kenton,  London. 

Boston,  June  29,  1843. 

Dear  Kenyon,  —  By  each  of  the  last  steamers  I  received  a  letter 
from  you,  the  first  a  long  one,  both  most  refreshing  and  delightful, 
and  full  of  your  kind  and  faithful  nature.  I  wish  I  could  answer 
them  both  as  they  ought  to  be  answered,  cheerfully,  brightly,  heart- 
ily. But  I  cannot.  I  am  full  of  troubled  thoughts,  even  I  may  say 
I  am  full  of  sorrow.  An  old  and  much-loved  friend  has  just  died  in 
my  house,  in  my  arms,  —  ]\Ir.  Legare  of  South  Carolina,  our  Attor- 
ney-General ;  and,  at  the  moment  of  his  death,  filling,  ad  interim,  the 
place  of  Secretary  of  State,  which  Webster's  resigniation  six  weeks  ago 
had  left  vacant. 

He  came  here,  with  the  President  and  his  whole  Cabinet,  to  the 
great  national  celebration  of  the  completion  of  our  monument  on 
Bunker's  Hill,  when  Webster,  on  the  iVth  of  June,  made  a  grand 
speech  to  all  the  authorities  of  the  country,  and  40,000  or  50,000  be- 
sides. But  poor  Legare  could  not  be  there.  He  was  taken  ill  the 
same  morning,  with  what  seemed  a  simple  obstruction  of  the  bowels. 
Medical  aid  was  called  at  once.  I  was  with  him  that  day  and  the 
next,  —  during  which  his  sufferings  were  great,  —  and  removed  him 
to  my  house,  where  he  survived  but  thirty-six  hours,  without  having 
at  any  moment  obtained  the  slightest  relief.  On  a  "post  mortem 
examination,  it  was  found  that  no  relief  was  possible  from  the 
first 

The  suddenness  of  the  death,  —  he  was  ill  but  seventy-eight  hours, 
and  we  were  really  anxious  about  him  only  eighteen,  —  and  the  great- 


M.  51.  DEATH  OF  MR.   LEGAR^.  213 


ness  of  the  loss,  —  for  he  was  certainly  the  most  important  man  in 
the  Administration  after  Webster  left  it,  —  filled  our  city  with  sor- 
row and  consternation,  shocking  all  so  much  the  more,  for  the  jubi- 
lant excitement  of  the  days  immediately  preceding  it.  To  me  the 
personal  loss  is  very  great.  He  was  a  man  of  genius,  full  of  refine- 
ment and  poetry,  and  one  of  the  best  scholars  in  the  coimtry  ;  but, 
more  than  all  this,  he  was  of  a  most  warm  and  affectionate  spirit.  I 
had  known  him  familiarly  from  1819,  when  we  studied  together  in 
Edinburgh.  When  we  passed  that  winter  in  Dresden,  in  1835  -  36, 
of  which  you  know  so  well,  he,  being  then  our  minister  at  Brussels, 
came  to  us  and  spent  a  week  with  us  ;  and  every  year  but  one,  since 
we  came  home,  he  has  made  a  pilgrimage  to  the  North,  to  see  us.  But 
the  two  last  years  he  came  to  us  in  our  retreat  on  the  sea-shore,  and 
made  it  brilliant  to  us  by  his  wit  and  dear  by  his  affections  ;  and  now, 
when  the  President  should  have  left  Boston,  he  intended  to  have  given 
us  four  or  five  days  of  quiet  enjoyment.  But  God  has  ordered  other- 
wise, and  if  we  can  all  submit  with  as  much  docility  as  he  did,  it  is 
enough. 

He  possessed  Hs  powers  in  perfect  composure  to  the  last  moment ; 
made  his  will,  sent  all  his  public  papers  to  the  President,  who  was 
lodged  quite  near  to  us,  and  did  everything  suited  to  the  occasion, 
without  once  altering  the  level  tone  of  his  voice,  except  when  he  spoke 
of  the  only  remaining  member  of  his  inmiediate  family,  a  much- 
loved  unmarried  sister.  And  yet  this  man  was  only  forty-seven  years 
old  ;  just  as  the  country,  divided  about  everything  else,  was  beginning 
to  look  with  great  unanimity  to  him,  from  a  perfect  confidence  alike 
in  his  talents,  his  principles,  and  his  honor,  —  it  was,  indeed,  just 
when  he  felt  sure  he  was  at  once  "  to  burst  out  into  sudden  blaze," 
that  "  the  blind  Fury  came,  and  slit  the  thin-spun  life." 

It  is  one  of  the  most  solemn  and  striking  events  that  has  ever  come 
within  my  knowledge.  The  old  physicians  who  attended  him,  and 
who  have  attended  their  thousands  before,  were  as  much  astonished 
at  his  composure  as  I  was.  But  he  saw  nobody,  except  for  a  moment 
one  member  of  the  Cabinet,  who  insisted  upon  looking  at  him  once 
more  ;  so  that  the  quietness  of  everything  gave  it  a  power  that  makes 
me  shudder  w^hen  I  think  of  it.''^  .... 

*  The  death  of  Mr.  Legare,  with  its  attendant  duties  and  sorroAvs,  caused  an 
entire  change  in  the  plans  of  Mr.  Ticknor  and  his  family  ;  and  this  summer,  of 
1843,  was  passed  in  various  excursions  in  Massachusetts  and  New  York.  They 
avoided  Woods'  Hole,  where  Mr.  Legare's  annual  visit  had  added  so  much  to 
their  enjoyment,  and  where,  in  fact,  they  never  went  again. 


214  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1843. 

£  Sydney  Smith's  petition  has  done  good,  and  it  is  something  to  be 

aWe  to  say  this.  Nearly  every  newspaper  in  the  United  States  has 
printed  it,  generally  without  commentary  ;  now  and  then  enforcing 
its  doctrines,  and  sometimes,  though  very  rarely,  trying  to  apologize 
for  the  indebted  States.  In  only  two  cases  I  have  heard  of  any  ex- 
ception to  the  above  courses.  One  Boston  paper,  and  one  New  York 
paper,  disavowing  the  whole  doctrine  of  repudiation,  and  declaring 
every  dollar  of  the  debts  must  be  paid,  yet  abused  Mr.  Sydney  Smith 
for  the  manner  in  which  he  urged  his  claims,  and  for  the  motives  that 
led  him  to  invest  money  in  American  stocks.  I  replied  to  both  these, 
in  a  short  article  I  enclose,  the  only  article  savoring  of  politics  that  I 
remember  to  have  written  since  I  was  twenty-one  years  old.  Per- 
haps you  will  find  some  mistakes  of  fact  about  Mr.  Smith  in  it, 
though  I  rather  think  not,  as  I  remember  my  authorities  —  chiefly 
Mmself  —  for  all  I  have  said  about  him.  You  will  notice,  however, 
that  our  newspapers,  like  many  of  yours,  insist  on  spelling  his  name 
Sidney. 

On  the  whole  subject  of  repudiation  I  feel  better  than  I  did  when 
I  WTote  you  last  about  it,  eight  or  nine  months  ago.  The  country,  I 
think,  is  getting  to  understand  the  matter,  and,  w^hat  is  more,  to  feel 
it.  What  Prince  Metternich  once  said  to  me,  in  reproach  of  our 
democratic  institutions,  is  entirely  true  :  we  must  first  suffer  from  an 
evil  before  we  can  apply  the  remedy  ;  we  have  no  preventive  legisla- 
tion upon  such  subjects.  But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  when  the  peo- 
ple do  come  to  the  rescue,  they  come  with  a  flooding  force,  which  your 
societies,  where  power  is  balanced  between  the  governments  and  the 
masses,  know  nothing  about.  I  have  much  hope  that  this  rescue  is 
coming  ;  I  think  I  see  signs  of  it  throughout  all  our  *'  fierce  demo- 
cratie."  The  people  cannot  bear  to  be  dishonored,  disgraced.  They 
suffer  as  Metternich  said,  but  not  as  he  meant ;  and  I  begin  to  trust 
to  them  again,  with  my  former  slowly  placed  confidence. 


M.  52.]  SYDNEY  SMITH'S  LETTERS.  215 


CHAPTEE    XI. 

Letters  to  Mr.  Lyell,  Miss  Edgeivorth,  Mr.  Kenyon,  G.  T.  Curtis,  C.  S. 
Daveis,  Prince  John  of  Saxony,  G.  S.  Hillard,  and  Horatio  Greenough. 

—  Summers  at  Geneseo,  N.  Y. ;  Manchester,  on  Massachusetts  Bay.  — 
Journeys  in  Pennsylvania,  New  York,  Neio  Ham^jshire,  etc.  —  PasS' 
ing  Public  Events.  —  Slavery  and  Repudiation.  —  Prison  Discipline. 

—  Revolutions  of  1848.  —  Astor  Place  Riots. 

To  Charles  Lyell,  Esq.,  London. 

Boston,  November  30,  1843. 

My  dear  Mr.  Lyell,  —  I  wrote  you  a  Avord  by  the  last  steamer, 
and  now,  in  continuation,  take  up  the  several  points  in  yours  of  Oc- 
tober 12. 

The  first  is  repudiation.  On  the  whole  of  this  matter,  I  refer  you 
to  an  article  which  will  appear  in  the  "  North  American  "  for  Janu- 
ary  You  may  depend,  I  think,  on  every  word  of  fact  or  law 

that  you  find  in  this  paper."^  When  you  come  to  the  prophecy  you 
must  judge  for  yourself.  I  do  not  know  that  anything  needs  to  be 
added  to  it  for  your  purpose,  except  in  reply  to  your  suggestion,  that 
an  impression  prevails  in  London  that  the  States  which  have  not  paid 
the  interest  on  their  public  debts  are  well  off.  Nothing  can  be 
farther  from  the  truth.  There  has  been  great  suffering  in  all,  and  in 
some,  like  Indiana  and  Illinois,  a  proper  currency  has  disappeared, 
and  men  have  been  reduced  to  barter,  in  the  common  business  of 
every-day  life.  What  you  saw  in  Philadelphia  was  nothing  to  the 
crushing  insolvency  of  the  West  and  South.,  The  very  post-office  felt 
the  effects  of  it,  —  men  with  large  landed  estates  being  unable  to  take 
out  their  letters,  because  they  could  not  pay  the  postage  in  anything 
the  government  officers  could  properly  receive. 

....  How  foolish,  then,  is  Sydney  Smith  in  his  last  letter,  to  treat 
us  all  as  pickpockets !  He  does  his  cause  a  great  mischief  by  it ; 
that,  perhaps,  I  could  submit  to,  but  I  cannot  submit  to  the  injury  he 

*  Written  by  the  late  Benjamin  R.  Curtis. 


216  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1843. 

has  done  to  my  cause,  and  to  the  cause  of  all  honest  men,  by  exciting 
passion  and  prejudice  against  it.  He  should  have  had  more  wisdom 
than  to  do  this,  more  good  feeling,  more  true  sympathy  with  us  ;  for 
it  is  we  who  are  to  fight  this  battle  for  him,  if  it  is  to  be  fought  suc- 
cessfully. Burke  says,  somewhere,  that  it  is  never  worth  while  to  bring 
a  bill  of  indictment  against  a  whole  people.  Certainly,  then,  it  must 
be  a  mistake  to  insult  a  whole  people,  more  especially  if  you  wish  to 
persuade  that  people,  at  the  same  time,  to  do  something  ;  and  most 
especially  if  that  people  is  really  sovereign,  and  can  do  as  it  likes  after 
all.  Nobody  in  this  country  can  be  glad  of  what  he  has  written,  un- 
less it  be  the  few  who  wish  to  build  up  their  political  fortunes  on  the 
doctrines  of  repudiation.  He  is  on  their  side,  and  the  best  ally  they 
now  have,  so  far  as  I  know.  But  I  think  we  will  beat  them  all.  And 
let  it  be  remembered  that  we  have  no  weapons  in  the  world  to  do  this 
with,  but  the  exact  truth,  and  that  we  can  succeed  in  no  way  but  by 
the  ballot-box  and  universal  suffrage.  So  much  for  Sydney  Smith  on 
repudiation. 

On  the  general  relations  of  the  two  countries  he  is  still  worse.  His 
remarks  on  our  desire  to  go  to  war  "with  England,  because  we  envy 
and  hate  her,  how  true  are  they  1  And  if  they  were  true,  then  how 
wise  1  Does  he  not  know  that  this  is  the  spirit  that  makes  nations  hate 
each  other,  till  their  frigates  go  down  side  by  side,  with  their  colors 
standing,  and  fills  the  bubbles  that  rise  on  the  spot  with  the  curses  of 
their  dead  1  If  I  were  to  talk  so  to  him,  very  likely  he  would  turn 
round  and  say,  "  This  is  the  very  sort  of  passion  I  intended  to  put  you 
into.  '  I  meant  you  there  in  the  heart  of  hell,  to  work  in  fire  and  do 
my  errands.' "  Well,  let  him  say  so,  that  is,  if  his  conscience  will 
permit  him.  But  in  the  mean  time,  notwithstanding  the  temptation 
he  lays  before  us  to  do  wrong  in  anger,  we  will  still  saj^  w^hat  is  true 
about  repudiation ;  and  he  shall  have  his  money,  every  penny  of  it, 
by  the  blessing  of  God,  though  he  seems  to  prefer,  as  a  matter  of 
taste,  to  get  it  by  the  help  of  Satan. 


To  Mr.  Lyell,  London. 

December  14,  1843. 
Mt  dear  Mr.  Lyell,  —  Continuing  along  with  your  questions,* 
the  next  one  to  which  I  come  touches  the  fatal  subject  of  slavery.     I 
hate  to  come  near  it,  so  odious  is  it  to  me  in  all  its  forms,  and  so  full 

*  Alluded  to  in  the  pre\ious  letter,  November  30. 


^.52.]  sla\t:ry.  217 

of  difficulties  for  our  future  condition.     However,  there  are  consoling 
points  about  it,  and  I  will  go  on.*  .... 

The  last  important  discussion  on  involuntary  servitude  at  the 
South  was  in  the  Virginia  Legislature,  in  1831  -  32,  soon  after  a  for- 
midable insurrection  had  occurred  near  Southampton,  in  that  State. 
No  question  was  taken  ;  but,  from  the  whole  tone  of  the  debate,  all 
men  apprehended  the  near  abolition  of  slavery  in  Virginia,  Mary- 
land, and  Kentucky,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  all  men  rejoiced  at  it. 
Certainly  all  the  North  did.  We  hoped  something  would  now  be 
done  that  should  counteract  whatever  of  mischief  had  followed  the 
extension  of  slavery,  in  1820,  to  Missouri,  sorely  against  our  will. 

But  we  w^ere  disappointed.  Political  and  sectional  abolitionism 
had  appeared  already.  The  South  soon  became  alarmed  and  excited. 
They  put  themselves  on  the  defensive  first,  and  then  on  the  offen- 
sive. Instead  of  regarding  slavery  as  a  great  moral  and  political 
evil,  as  it  had  always  before  been  admitted  to  be  among  the  mass 
of  the  slaveholders,  and  as  it  was  openly  proclaimed  to  be  in  the 
Virginia  debates  of  1831-32,  it  has  been,  since  1833,  maintained' 
by  McDuffie,  Calhoun,  and  perhaps  a  majority  of  the  leading  men  of 
the  South,  to  be  a  great  good  in  itself,  and  defensible  in  all  its  conse- 
quences  

Meantime,  at  the  North  we  grow  rigorous  with  the  South.  "We 
say,  and  say  truly,  that  it  was  not  a  thought  in  the  minds  of  men, 
when  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  was  made  in  1788,  that 
slavery  was  to  be  regarded  as  anything  but  a  temporary  calamity, 
which  was  to  be  removed  wdth  the  assent  of  all,  as  soon  as  fit  means 
could  be  found  for  it.  Washington,  a  slaveholder,  acted  so.  Jeffer- 
son, a  slaveholder,  A\T?ote  so.     All  men  felt  so. 

But  we  at  the  North  do  not  enough  remember  that  we  made,  by 
that  same  Constitution,  a  special  bargain  with  the  Southern  States, 
by  which  we  left  it  entirely  to  them  to  remove,  by  their  owtl  means, 
and  in  their  own  time,  the  curse  w^hich  was  their  own  private  mis- 
chief only,  reserving  to  the  whole  nation  the  power  of  abolishing  the 
slave-^rac^e,  which  was  promptly  done.  We  further  promised  to  per- 
mit them  to  retake  their  slaves  escaping  into  our  States,  and  to  do 
other  things,  which  we  at  first  did  cheerfully,  and  in  a  spirit  of  honor, 

but  which  we  now  do  grudgingly,  or  not  at  all So  deep,  so 

fatal,  indeed,  is  the  vice  of  the  whole  system,  that  jiothing  but  mis- 
chief can  come  from  it,  whichever  way  you  turn. 

*  He  here  gives  a  summary  of  the  history  of  slavery  in  the  United  States  from 
colonial  times. 

VOL.    II.  10 


218  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1843. 

What,  then,  you  will  say,  —  nay,  you  do  say  it  in  your  letter,  — 
^     what  is  to  be  done  ?     I  answer,  wait.     For,  first,  it  is  right  in  itself 
to  do  so.     Slave  labor  can  never,  in  the  long  run,  come  into  successful 
competition  with  free  labor,  and  in  time  slaves,  therefore,  will  every- 
where cease  to  be  valuable  as  property 

In  the  next  place  I  would  wait,  because  I  cannot  help  myself.  I 
can  do  nothing.  Legislation,  I  fear,  can  do  nothing.  It  is  an  affair 
of  two  millions  and  a  half  of  human  beings,  all  slaves,  and  all  in  a 
most  remarkable  state  of  equality  of  condition  in  other  resj)ects.  It 
is  beyond  the  reach  of  legislation  ;  too  big  for  it.  It  will  be  dis- 
posed of  by  its  own  gra\T.ty,  not  by  any  instruments  of  human  in- 
vention. 

Finally,  I  would  wait,  as  a  Northern  man,  because  it  is  for  my  in- 
terest. The  South  is  growing  weak,  we  are  growing  strong.  The 
Southern  States  are  not  only  losing  their  relative  consec[uence  in  the 
Union,  but,  from  the  inherent  and  manifold  mischiefs  of  slavery,  they 
are  positively  growing  poor.  They  are  falling  back  in  refinement, 
civilization,  and  power.  Every  year  puts  the  advantage  more  on  our 
side,  and  prepares  us  better  to  meet  the  contest,  which  will  be  gentler 
and  more  humane  the  longer  it  is  postponed,  but  which  can  never  be 
other  than  formidable  and  disastrous. 

I  do  not,  however,  deprecate  the  struggle  as  doubting  the  result,  or 
fearing  inconvenience  or  suffering  for  the  North.  There  can  be  but 
one  result.  Slavery  will  be  abolished  ;  if  soon,  probably  with  much 
blood  ;  if  later,  I  hope  with  none.  But  in  either  event,  what  is  to 
become  of  the  millions  of  poor  slaves  ?  I  foresee  no  milder  fate  for 
them  than  that  of  the  Indians,  and  I  fear  one  much  more  cruel.  The 
eager,  active,  encroaching  race,  to  which  we  belong,  will  never  endure 
those  gentle,  inefficient  tribes  to  cumber  the  earth  about  them,  after 
they  themselves  begin  to  feel  that  they  want  it  and  can  profitably 
use  it. 

But  do  not  misunderstand  me  ;  indeed,  I  know  you  will  not.  Fore- 
seeing all  these  consequences,  I  am  still  for  keeping  on  in  the  straight- 
forward course,  to  abolish  all  slavery  throughout  the  world.  Great 
mischiefs,  I  know,  will  come  of  it.  Let  them.  The  thing  is  right, 
and  will  succeed  ;  and  greater  good  will  at  last  result  from  it.  But 
let  us  do  it  by  the  wisest,  which  in  such  cases  are  always  the  gentlest 
means  ;  that  so  humanity  may  least  suffer  from  what  is,  after  all,  too 
old  a  disease  to  be  eradicated  without  the  use  of  remedies  that  may 
sometime^  make  us,  in  our  short-sightedness,  grieve  to  have  it  back 


agam. 


M.  52.]  GREAT   SOCIAL   QUESTIONS.  219 

I  pray,  therefore,  we  may  all  remember,  at  the  Nortli,  that  "  they 
also  serve  who  only  stand  and  wait."  And  I  pray,  too,  we  may  all 
remember  that  the  condition  of  the  master,  if  rightly  considered,  is 
hardly  more  to  be  envied  than  that  of  the  slave,  and  needs  quite  as 
much  tenderness,  and  forecast  in  its  treatment.  --* 


To  Miss  Maria  Edgeworth,  Edgeworthtown. 

Boston,  March  30,  1844. 

Mt  dear  Miss  Edgeworth,  — .  ...  On  looking  over  your  let- 
ter, which  is  now  lying  before  me,  I  am  struck  anew  with  the  sub- 
stantial similarity  of  the  interests,  great  and  small,  that  agitate 
society  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  and,  I  dare  say,  on  both  sides 
of  the  globe.  "  Man,"  as  a  wise  friend  "^  once  said  to  me,  "  is,  after 
all,  an  animal  that  has  only  a  few  tricks."  ....  Only  think  for  a 
moment  what  a  resemblance  there  is  between  that  Rhode  Island  ques- 
tion, about  which  you  did  me  the  honor  to  read  the  long  story  I 
wrote  to  Mr.  Lyell,  and  your  Irish  question  ;  what  counterparts  your 
Daniel  O'Connell  and  our  Governor  Dorr  are,  both  in  the  motives 
that  govern  them  and  in  the  ends  they  pursue.  Why,  "  half  the  plat- 
form just  reflects  the  other,"  though  here  I  must  needs  be  permitted 
to  say,  that  I  think  we  have  a  little  the  advantage  of  you,  —  a  thing 
that  comes  rarely  enough,  to  be  sure,  —  but  I  really  think  we  have  a 
little  the  advantage  of  you.     For  the  Ehode-Islanders  have  not  only 

put  Governor  Dorr  in  prison,  but  they  keep  him  there And 

there,  I  think,  he  wdll  have  to  remain,  till  he  is  willing  to  come  out 
and  take  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  government  he  has  endeavored 
to  overturn 

But  to  leave  politics,  —  though  these  questions  are  much  deeper 
than  mere  party  politics,  which  are  always  odious,  —  to  leave  politics 
and  come  to  another  of  your  exciting  topics,  —  Puseyism,  —  we  have,  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  persons  in  the  United  States  who  belong 
to  the  Episcopal  or  Anglican  church,  just  as  much  Puseyism,  and  just 
as  bitter  quarrels  about  it,  as  you  have.  In  New  England  —  thanks  to 
the  wisdom,  I  believe,  of  the  Anglican  clergy  —  we  have  not  been 
much  infected  either  way  ;  but  New  York  is  full  of  the  matter,  and 
its  newspapers  too.  Then,  too,  our  tariff  question,  which  is  annually 
shaking  the  nation,  is  exactly  your  corn-law  question  tiirned  uj)si(]e- 

*  Rev.  Dr.  Francis  Wayland,  author  of  "Elements  of  Intellectual  Philoso- 
phy," etc.,  and  President  of  Brown  University,  Rhode  Island. 


220  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1844. 

down  ;  the  manufacturers  here  being  the  party  comphxined  of,  while 
with  you  it  is  the  hmd-owners.  So,  you  see,  we  are  still  children  of 
Old  England  ;  and  if  we  were  not,  we  should  be  still  doing  substan- 
tially the  same  things,  for  we  are  all  of  us  children  of  one  family ; 
connected  by  original  qualities  that  will  never  permit  us  to  get  very 
far  apart,  even  if  we  try. 

These,  however,  are  great  matters,  and  I  might  have  added  to  them 
the  Repeal  movement  ;  for,  though  that  has  been  almost  as  exclusively 
an  Irish  affair,  in  the  United  States,  as  it  has  been  in  Ireland,  it  may 
still  serve  to  show  how  intimate  are  the  bonds  that  connect  the  two 
sides  of  the  world  together.  But  perhaps  small  matters  will  show  this 
even  more  plainly,  and  show  at  the  same  time  how  much  we  are 
alike  ;  for,  as  they  are  not  themselves  the  vast  stream  of  public  inter- 
ests, which,  like  the  Gulf  Stream,  strike  of  their  own  great  impulse 
from  one  continent  over  to  the  other,  but  rather  the  feathers  and 
straws  that  float  on  its  surface,  we  can,  perhaps,  after  all,  measure  the 
movement  itself  by  them,  better  than  we  can  by  the  flood  that  bears 
us  along,  as  if  we  were  only  a  part  of  it.  For  instance,  there  is  mes- 
merism. You  are  all  astir  with  that  in  England,  and  I  dare  sa}'' 
in  Ireland.  Well,  we  reprint  Miss  Martineau's  brochures,  and  read 
them,  perhaps,  as  much  as  you  do.  We  have,  too,  our  great  mesmer- 
izers,  and  our  great  phreno-mesmerizers,  some  of  them  like  Katter- 
felto,  —  if  that  is  the  way  Cowper  spells  his  name,  —  Avith  their  hair 
on  end  at  their  own  wonders,  wondering  for  their  bread  ;  and  others, 
mere  gross,  immoral  mountebanks,  not  at  all  deluded  by  the  odious 

tricks  they  perform There  is,  no  doubt,  something  true  at  the 

bottom  of  it ;  and,  as  in  many  other  cases,  the  small  portion  of  truth 
preserves  the  large  mass  of  error,  into  which  it  is  infused,  from  be- 
coming obvious  and  odious  to  all  men.  That  there  is  such  a  thing  as 
a  mesmeric  sleep  can  hardly  now  be  questioned  ;  but  my  faith  can  go 
no  further.  One  of  the  curious  circumstances  about  the  whole  mat- 
ter is,  that  the  believers  should  consent  to  be  called  by  the  name  of  a 
man  whom  they  themselves  must  regard  as  an  impostor,  and  who, 
by  common  consent,  survived  his  o'wn  honor  above  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury. For  Mesmer,  I  think,  did  not  die  till  about  the  time  of  the 
battle  of  Waterloo 

If  you  will  draw  from  all  these  facts  the  inference  that  the  United 
States  —  notwithstanding  we  have  just  chosen  Mr.  Polk  to  be  Presi- 
dent, and  are  in  great  danger  of  annexing  Texas  to  our  already  too 
large  territory  —  will  still  go  on,  and  work  out  the  original  Anglo- 
Saxon  materials  of  the  national  character  to  some  good  result,  I  shall 


M.  52.]  JOURNEY  IN  PENNSYLVANIA.  221 

certainly  be  contented  with  it.  We  have  made  a  great  many  mis- 
takes, by  most  of  a\  liich  we  liave  profited.  We  shall  make  a  great 
many  more,  as  other  nations  have  done.  Bnt  the  aggregate  of  the 
whole  will  not  be  half  so  large  as  was  anticipated  by  the  wisest  and 
best  among  us,  when  we  began  the  world  as  an  independent  people 
about  sixty  years  ago.     The  people   here  —  I  mean   the   mass,   the 

whole  —  is  more  truly  sovereign  than  it  ever  was  before All 

great  questions,  therefore,  must  be  argued  out  before  this  sovereign!. 
Repudiation  was  one  of  them,  and  was  involved  in  a  good  deal  of  dif- 
ficulty  But  the  question   has   been  argued  out,  —  or  is  now 

arguing  out, — and  the  result  is,  that  the  sovereign  has  decided,  and 
will  continue  to  decide  rightly. 

....  Just  so  it  will  be  with  slavery.  It  is  a  more  difficult  ques- 
tion than  the  last,  but  it  must  be  argued  out  before  the  sovereign,  and 
there  is  but  one  w^ay  in  which  it  can  be  decided.  Only  think  where 
you,  in  England,  were,  within  the  memory  of  a  man  like  Mr.  Thomas 
Grenville,  when,  as  somebody  says,  the  pious  John  iSTewton  went  reg- 
ularly twice  a  year  to  Guinea,  with  a  cargo  of  hymn-books  and  hand- 
cuffs. We  are  now  nearer  to  emancipation  than  you  then  seemed, 
and  are  quite  as  sure  to  come  to  it ;  if  for  no  other  reason,  for  the 
plain  one,  that  slavery  will  impoverish,  and  degrade  morally  and  in- 
tellectually, every  State  in  the  Union  that  persists  in  maintaining  it. 
I  take  these  two  great  questions,  of  repudiation  and  slavery,  as  in- 
stances of  what  I  mean,  because  they  are  the  only  questions  of  a  polit- 
ical nature  in  which  I  have  ever  felt  a  deep  personal  interest  ;  and 
because,  if  the  popular  sovereign  is  w^ise  and  honest  enough  to  decide 
such  questions  as  these  rightly,  he  may  be  trusted,  in  the  long  run, 
with  all  the  attributes  of  government.  He  Avill  make  mistakes,  but 
none  that  wall  he  fatal 

The  summer  of  1844  was  devoted  by  !Mr.  Ticknor  and  his 
family  to  a  journey  through  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania,  at  that 
time  beyond  the  region  of  railroads  and  crowded  thoroughiares. 
Taking  a  carriage,  and  a  light  wagon  for  the  luggage,  they  fol- 
low^ed  the  windings  of  the  beautiful  Susquehanna  and  Juniata, 
often  missing  the  comforts  to  be  found  on  more  frequented 
routes,  but  finding  full  compensation  in  the  beauty  and  seclusion 
of  these  river  valleys.  Passing  through  the  southern  parts  of  the 
State  of  I^ew^  York,  which  were  full  of  interest  and  variety,  they 
went  through  the  lake  country  to  Niagara. 


222  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1S44. 

To  George  Ticknor  Curtis,  Boston. 

Duncan's  Island,  confluence  of  the  Susquehanna  and  Juniata, 

June  23,  18A4. 

My  dear  George,  —  I  suppose  by  this  time  yon  may  be  glad  to 
hear  something  of  our  whereabouts  ;  or  if  you  are  not,  we  should  like 
to  hear  something  of  you,  which  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  in  Irish. 
On  both  accounts,  therefore,  I  write.  And,  first,  we  are  all  well,  and 
have  thus  far  made  a  good  expedition  of  it 

One  day  we  passed  in  New  York,  and  two  nights,  all  given  to  noise, 
except  a  few  hours  that  we  were  at  the  opera,  which  was  pretty  good, 
and  a  great  relief.  One  week  we  passed  in  Philadelphia,  almost  as 
noisy,  and  quite  hot  and  dull.  Then,  a  fortnight  ago  yesterday,  we 
plunged  into  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania,  by  the  Readmg  Railroad, 

making  our  first  stop  at  Pottsville,  ninety-seven  miles Here 

your  aunt  first  began  to  feel  all  the  beneficial  eff'ects  of  change  of  air, 
and  exercise,  and  from  this  time  she  has  been  constantly  gaining 

strength From  this  time  we  have  been  in  a  beautiful  country. 

About  Pottsville  it  was  wild,  and  broken,  and  picturesque  ;  crossing 
over  through  Lebanon  to  Harrisburg,  it  was  the  richest  and  finest 
rural  scenery,  German  wealth,  cultivation,  and  manners  ;  and  from 
Harrisburg  here,  only  sixteen  miles,  we  had  the  beautiful  banks  of 
the  Susquehanna.  We  stopped  five  days  in  Pottsville  ;  and  here 
we  have  been  eight  days,  in  a  quiet  old  mansion-house,  v/here  the 
decayed  Duncan  family,  with  a  spirited  old  lady  at  the  head  of  it, 
takes  boarders,  and  accommodates  them  most  comfortably.  To- 
morrow we  go  up  the  Juniata  ;  sorry  to  leave  such  a  beautiful  spot 
as  this  is,  even  for  the  more  various  beauties  we  are  promised  in 
travelling  farther. 

The  population  of  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania  I  find  more  diff'erent 
from  ours  than  I  expected,  and  more  marked  with  the  German  char- 
acter. But  the  German  language  —  everywhere  that  I  have  been, 
badly  spoken,  but  still  always  so  as  to  be  intelligible  —  is  evidently 

dying  out,  and  the  German  character  will  follow  it Meantime, 

the  population  is  a  pretty  rude,  opaque  mass 

When  we  shall  be  at  home  is  entirely  uncertain.  I  have  taken  a 
plenty  of  work  to  do,  and  your  aunt  thrives  so  well,  and  we  all  have 
so  good  a  time,  and  the  country  is  so  beautiful,  and  the  travelling  so 
easy,  etc.,  etc.,  that  there  is  no  telling  what  will  be  the  end  of  the 
matter,  or  when  we  shall  get  to  Niagara. 


M.  53.]  EMANCIPATION.  223 

To  John  Kenyon,  Esq.,  London. 

March  30,  1845. 

....  With,  tlie  February  packet  came  a  codicil  to  your  kindness, 
again  most  delightful,  for  which  we  owe  you  more  thanks.  How  can 
we  render  them  1  Come  and  see.  Here  are  the  Lyells  coming  a 
second  time,  nothing  daunted  by  their  first  experiment.  The  steam 
packets  will  bring  you  almost  to  our  door  ;  and  when  you  are  once 
here,  you  can  judge  of  the  soundness  of  your  American  investments, 
a  great  deal  better  than  you  can  even  through  Bates's  wide  corre- 
spondence and  painstaking  judgment,  for  the  whole  depends  upon  the 
character  of  the  people.  This  you  may  think  is  a  bold  remark  in  me 
just  now,  when  you  are  thinking  so  ill  of  us,  for  electing  Polk  Presi- 
dent, and  taking  measures  to  annex  Texas.  But  it  is  true,  neverthe- 
less. You  have  nothing  else  to  depend  upon,  as  far  as  you  are  a 
holder  of  American  funds,  but  the  moral  sense  of  the  people  who  are 

indebted  to  you The  only  question  is,  have  they  enough  of 

this  wisdom  and  honesty,  to  do  what  is  wise  and  right  ?  I  think  they 
have  ;  that  is,  I  think,  in  the  long  run,  the  popular  sovereign  may  be 
depended  upon.  No  doubt  he  has  made  great  mistakes  ;  no  doubt 
lie  will  make  more.  But  those  mistakes  have  been  neither  half  so 
numerous,  nor  half  so  grave  as  the  wisest  and  best  men  amongst  us 
thought  they  would  be,  seventy  years  ago,  when  we  were  beginning 
the  world  ;  and  I  verily  believe  we  have  gained  wisdom  from  all  of 
them. 

The  matter  of  slavery,  of  which  Texas  is  only  a  subdivision,  is  one 
full  of  embarrassment  both  for  the  present  and  the  future.  But  I 
think  we  shall  come  safely  out  of  it,  if  we  can  only  persuade  ourselves 
to  wait 

It  is  inevitable,  I  conceive,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  slaves 
should  become  unprofitable,  at  some  time  or  other,  in  the  United 
States,  —  probably  as  soon  as  it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  slaves 
themselves  that  emancipation  should  take  place,  —  and  by  the  slow 
and  gentle  process  which  will  alone  permit  the  emancipation  of  two 
or  three  millions  of  human  beings  to  be  a  benefit  to  them.  The  great 
difficulty  is,  to  make  all  interested  in  the  matter  willing  to  icait 
Ten  or  a  dozen  years  ago  the  South  became  very  much  alarmed,  by 
the  conduct  of  the  unwise  abolitionists  of  the  free  Sta-tes,  and  finding 
themselves  growing  weak,  have  now  contrived,  or  are  likely  to  con- 
trive, by  unjustifiable  means,  to  add  Texas  to  their  end  of  the  con- 
federacy, not  perceiving  that  slavery  is  their  weakness  ;  and  that  to 


^? 


22i  LIFE  OF   GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1845. 

add  further  to  it  is  only  to  increase  that  weakness.  The  breaking 
of  the  Constitution,  too,  on  this  vital  point,  is  breaking  the  old  bar- 
gain and  the  compromise  between  the  North  and  the  South,  which  is 
becoming  every  day  more  important  to  them  than  it  is  to  us.  And 
the  consequence  of  all  this  is,  that  ill-will  is  growing  up  between  the 
free  States  and  the  slave  States,  that  can  be  a  source  of  nothing  but 
mischief,  especially  to  the  poor  slaves.  For  to  them  there  is  no 
source  of  hope  and  ultimate  benefit,  except  in  the  influence,  the 
kindly,  peaceful  influence,  of  the  North,  and  its  spirit  of  freedom. 
The  Union,  however,  will  not  be  broken  in  my  time.  It  is  too  im- 
portant to  both  extremes  ;  and  whenever  it  is  broken,  it  will  be  be- 
cause, as  so  often  happens,  the  passions  of  men  triumph  over  their 

interests 

Yery  different  from  all  this  is  the  "  Vestiges  of  Creation,"  a  book 
which  has  been  reprinted  here,  and  read,  perhaps,  quite  as  much  as 
it  has  in  England.  I  read  it  through  at  once,  in  the  beautiful  copy 
you  sent  me,  and  enjoyed  the  transparent  style  in  which  it  is  written, 
and  the  boldness  of  its  philosophical  generalization,  very  much.  But 
I  have  no  faith  in  the  conclusion  to  which  it  comes,  because  almost 
every  step  in  the  argument  is  set  upon  some  not  sure  theory,  and  the 
whole  consists  of  a  series  of  nicely  fitted  links,  in  which  "  ten,  or  ten 
thousandth,  breaks  the  chain  alike."  If  the  author  fails  in  a  single 
instance,  —  even  in  the  poor  matter  of  the  Mac  Lac  speculations  at 
the  end,  —  the  whole  system  explodes,  just  as  a  Prince  Rupert's  drop 
does  when  you  break  off  its  tail.  Of  each  of  the  scientific  parts  that 
compose  it  I  am  no  suificient  judge,  but  I  hear  the  experts  in  each, 
branch,  on  both  sides  the  Atlantic,  are  least  satisfied  where  they  are 
most  skilled  ;  that  Lyell  likes  all  but  the  geology,  Owen  all  but  the 
comparative  anatomy,  etc.,  —  so  that  from  the  nebulous  theory  up 
to  the  theory  of  the  perfectibility  of  human  nature,  this  veiled  proph- 
et and  philosopher,  who  draws  all  his  materials  from  the  darkness 
of  the  past,  and  pushes  them  with  his  mace,  like  a  great  causey,  into 
the  darker  chaos  of  the  future,  will  not  be  likely  to  find  many  who 
will  venture  on  "  his  new,  wondrous  pontifrice."  Those  that  do,  will, 
I  think,  be  seen  dropping  through  it,  one  after  another,  like  the  crowds 
in  Mirza's  vision  in  the  Spectator,  but  none  will  get  over  by  it  to  the 
shadowy  land  beyond.  It  is  no  common  man,  however,  that  under- 
took such  a  work,  and  if  you  ever  find  out  who  he  is,  I  pray  you  to 
send  me  word 


JE.  53.]  NIAGARA  FALLS.  225 


To  G.  T.  Curtis,  Boston. 

NiAGAKA  Falls,  Upper  Canada,  July  23,  1845. 

My  dear  George,  —  We  begin  to  want  to  hear  again  from  you 
and  Mary,  and  so  I  muster  me  up  to  thank  you  for  your  letter  and 
ask  for  another.  I  have,  however,  little  to  say.  We  passed  a  very 
quiet  life  at  Geneseo,*  after  I  last  wrote  to  you,  till  five  days  ago, 
when  we  came  here,  or  rather  to  the  other  side  of  the  river  ;  Miss 
Wadsworth  and  Gray  joining  our  party,  and  Sam  Guild  having  pre- 
ceded us  by  a  couple  of  days,  after  having  spent  two  days,  much  to 
his  satisfaction,  at  Geneseo. 

There  —  the  other  side  of  the  river  —  we  found  Ole  Bidl  and 
Egidius,  his  shadow,  which  seems  in  no  likelihood  to  grow  less.  Of 
course  we  had  a  concert,  and  there  was  much  visiting  of  wonders,  and 
much  enjoyment  of  lunar  bows,  and  walks  by  moonlight  on  Goat 
Island,  and  adventurous  rowing  up  to  the  foot  of  the  falls.  So  passed 
three  days. 

Then  we  all  came  over  here,  where  there  is  a  very  good,  quiet 
house  ;  and  right  before  our  windows  and  along  the  piazzas,  where 
we  chiefly  live,  is,  according  to  my  notion,  the  finest  view  of  the  two 
falls  united.  The  two  tall  Norwegians  and  Sam  left  us  night  before 
last,  reducing  our  party  to  its  original  six  ;  and  to-morrow,  having 
completed  three  days  on  this  side  of  the  river,  and  pretty  much  used 
it  up,  we  propose  to  remove  to  the  other  side,  where  we  shall  bivouac 
a  longer  or  shorter  time  according  to  our  humors,  the  fates,  the  sisters 
three,  and  such  odd  branches  of  learning. 

The  finest  thing  we  have  seen  yet  —  and  one  of  the  grandest  I  ever 
saw —  was  a  thunder-storm  among  the  waters,  as  it  seemed  to  be,  the 
other  night,  which  lighted  up  the  two  cascades,  as  seen  from  our 
piazzas,  with  most  magnificent  effect.  They  had  a  spectral  look,  as 
they  came  out  of  the  darkness  and  were  again  swallowed  up  in  it, 
that  defies  all  description  and  all  imagination. 

*  Mr.  Ticknor  and  his  family  passed  the  months  from  June  to  October,  1845, 
in  the  village  of  Geneseo,  New  York,  near  to  the  country  houses  of  their  friends, 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  James  S.  Wadsworth  and  Miss  Wadsworth.  In  a  letter,  written 
after  his  return  home,  to  Prince  John  of  Saxony,  he  mentions  a  visit  to  the 
prison  at  Aubuni,  in  which  he  was  interested  in  consequence  of  the  eager  dis- 
cussion of  questions  of  prison  discipline  then  going  on,  to  which  allusions  will 
be  found  in  the  letters. 

10*  0 


226  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1846. 

To  Charles  S.  Daveis,  Portland. 

New  York  (Staten  Island),  June  21,  1846. 

My  dear  Charles,  —  I  received  your  letter  in  due  time,  —  that  is, 
about  a  month  ago,  —  but  we  were  then  in  New  York,  much  occupied 
■with  cares  of  different  sorts,  and  more  wdth  society  ;  so  that  I  had  no 
leisure  to  do  always  what  would  best  have  pleased  me.  There  we 
remained  in  all  tw^o  months  and  more,  our  main  business,  to  which 
everything  else  w^as  postponed  and  made  subordinate,  being  the  care 
of  the  eves  of  no  less  than  four  ladies  who  were  under  our  charge. 
For  we  thought  that,  as  we  were  likely  to  make  a  campaign  of  it,  we 
might  as  well  do  all  the  good  the  opportunity  offered 

Of  those  of  our  acquaintance  whom  we  have  found  agreeable  and 

pleasant,  I  can  answer  pretty  readily  what  you  ask Chancellor 

Kent,  a  little  deaf,  but  as  vivacious  as  ever,  is  much  the  same  he 
always  was ;  and  ]\Ir.  Gallatin,  whom  I  saw  a  good  deal,  because  he 
lived  near  me,  is  very  wise,  wary  and  philosophical,  full  of  knowl- 
edge, and  still  eager  in  its  pursuit.  He  is,  on  the  whole,  the  man  in 
New  York  whom  you  can  get  the  most  out  of,  if  you  will  take  a  little 
pains  ;  for  he  is  really  what  Bacon  calls  "  a  full  man,"  and  is  as  ready 
as  he  is  full. 

....  But  enough  of  all  this.  We  had  a  very  good  time  in  New 
York,  after  the  way  of  the  world  ;  but  at  our  age  such  things  w^eary. 
It  was  impossible  to  refuse  kindnesses  such  as  were  offered  to  us  ;  but 
I  do  not  know  how  often  I  said  to  Anna,  in  the  words  of  Christophoro 
Sly,  after  he  had  heard  some  scenes  of  the  "  Taming  of  the  Shrew^," 
" 'T  is  excellent  work,  i'  faith,  lady  wife,  loould  it  were  done" 

So,  as  soon  as  the  weather  permitted  us,  we  finished  it  and  came  to 
Staten  Island,  where,  though  we  are  in  a  large  hotel,  w^e  lead  an  un- 
commonly quiet  life.     The  island  is  full  of  beautiful  drives  and  walks. 

After  passing  four  months  in  New  York  and  on  Staten  Island, 
in  order  that  his  eldest  daughter  might  be  under  the  care  of  an 
oculist,  he  writes  to  Mr.  Daveis  :  "  We  came  home  about  August 
12.  But  it  was  too  hot  to  remain  in  Boston.  We  —  meaning 
my  wife  and  myself — therefore  took  the  cars  to  Concord,  New 
Hampshire,  as  soon  as  we  could,  and  there  hired  a  buggy,  with 
which  —  in  the  true  Darby  and  Joan  style  —  we  jogged  round 
the  White  Hills,  stopping  wherever  ^ve  fancied,  and  enjoying 
about  a  hundred  miles  of  the  drive  very  much.  We  never  were 
there  before,  either  of  us." 


M.  54.]  WHITE  MOUNTAINS.  227 


On  this  journey  he  Avrote  as  follows  to  his  daughters,  who 
had  remained  with  their  relatives  in  Cambridge  :  — 


To  HIS  Daughters. 

Conway,  Thursday  afternoon,  August  28,  1846. 

I  do  not  think  I  can  add  much,  dearest  children,  to  your  mothei-'s 
letters,  except  an  account  of  herself,  which,  however,  I  rather  think 

you  will  be  more  glad   to   receive  than  anything  else The 

mountains,  which  rather  deserve  their  ancient  name  of  hills,  are 
before  our  windows,  and  the  pretty  meadows  of  the  Saco  are  all 
round  the  thrivmg,  comfortable  village  in  which  our  inn  stands.  It 
is  just  what  I  have  wanted,  and  I  assure  you  I  enjoy  the  tranqiuUity 
and  absence  of  all  intercourse  with  strangers,  except  of  the  slightest 
kuid,  very  much.     Whether  the  hills  are  high,  or  low,  is  a  matter  of 

small  moment  to  me We  shall  both  be  glad  to  see  you  again, 

and  will  give  you  a  day  or  two  fair  notice  of  what  Dogberry  calls  our 
"  reproach,"  —  a  thing  you  know  little  about. 

But  I  only  meant  to  fill  up  the  envelope  a  little,  that  nothing  might 

go  empty  of  love  to  you  ;  and,  in  good  truth,  I  have  nothing  else  to 

send.  Always  your  affectionate  father, 

G.  T. 

Franconta,  August  30. 

I  am  glad  your  mother  has  made  the  amende  honorable  to  the  moun- 
tains, my  dear  darlings  ;  for  it  is  always  an  awkward  thing  to  do,  and 
she  has  done  it  much  more  gracefully  than  I  could.  They  really  de- 
serve it.  It  was  a  beautiful  drive  up  the  Saco,  with  its  rich  meadows, 
on  Friday,  and  it  was  a  fine,  wild  one  down  the  Ammonoosuck  —  the 
wild  Ammonoosuck,  as  it  is  well  called  —  to-day  ;  but  this  Franconia 
Notch,  by  w^hich  we  go  from  the  waters  of  the  Connecticut  to  those 
of  the  Merrimack,  has  been  a  great  surprise  to  me,  so  beautiful  is  the 
pass.  Just  here,  the  rude,  perpendicular  hills  are  so  close  together 
that  there  is  hardly  room  for  the  buildings,  and  when  you  stand  a 
few  feet  from  the  house  on  either  side  of  it,  you  see  the  rocks  from 
the  other  side  frowning  over  it.  The  moon  went  down  two  or  three 
hours,  I  think,  before  its  time,  and  keeps,  still,  a  beautiful  twilight 
over  the  mountain  in  front  of  us,  and  the  reflection  of  a  pale  sort  of 
spectral  light  on  the  one  behind. 

The  house  Avhere  we  are,  like  several  w^e  have  seen,  has  a  look  like 
the  liospices  in  the  Alps,  —  large,  long,  and  standing  alone  ;   they 


228  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1846. 

amuse  you,  too,  ^^'ith.  echoes,  and  long  tin  horns  ;  and  the  children, 
as  you  toil  up  the  mountains,  come  out  with  berries  and  flowers  for 
you  ;  so  strikingly  do  similar  local  circumstances  produce  similar  re- 
sults, in  habits  and  manners.  We  have,  indeed,  enjoyed  the  last  three 
days  more  than  the  week  that  preceded  them,  and  shall  stop  to-mor- 
row in  this  wild,  secluded  spot."^  After  that,  two  days  will  easily 
take  us  to  Franklin,  Mr.  Webster's  fine  farm,  again  ;  and  therefore 

Thursday  may  well  bring  us  home  to  Boston 

Meantime,  console  yourselves  for  my  absence,  as  well  as  you  can, 
with  my  best  love,  and  with  the  assurance  that  I  want  to  see  you  as 
much  as  you  can  desire  to  have  me.  Love  to  all,  especially  "  uncles 
and  aunts."  Always  your  loving  father, 

G.  T. 

To  Prince  John,  of  Saxony. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  October  30,  1846. 

My  dear  Prince,  —  When  I  had  the  honor  of  writing  to  you,  about 
a  year  since,  I  told  you,  I  believe,  that,  in  the  spring  of  this  year,  I 
should  send  you  a  document  of  some  moment  on  the  subject  of  prison 

discipline But  the  report  of  the  small  minority  adhering  to 

the  Philadelphia  or  solitary,  system,  has  appeared  from  the  press  only 
within  a  few  days,  and  the  report  of  the  majority  is  not  yet  published 
at  all. 

The  first  —  or  the  report  of  the  minority,  attacking  the  Auburn 
system  and  defending  the  Philadelphia  system  —  I  have  now  the 
honor  to  send  you.  It  is  the  most  important  document  that  has  been 
published  in  this  countrij,  on  the  side  it  espouses.  More  weight  would 
be  given  to  it  if  it  dealt  more  with  facts,  and  had  its  foundations  more 
deeply  laid  in  statistical  results.  But  the  truth  is,  we  have  not  yet 
experience  enough  to  furnish  the  materials  for  such  an  examination 
of  the  subject.  I,  therefore,  regard  it  still  as  an  open  question  ;  and 
in  proportion  as  the  discussion  advances,  and  the  materials  for  a  wise 
decision  accumulate,  I  shall  be  happy  to  be  able  to  send  you  whatever 
is  here  published,  that  will  be  likely  to  interest  you.  I\Ieantime,  I 
console  myself  with  the  assurance,  that  both  systems,  wherever  they 
are  in  practical  operation,  are  doing  much  good,  and  are  rapidly  ma- 
turing results,  which  will  enable  good  and  faithful  men  to  reach  con- 
clusions, upon  which  the  best  system  of  penitentiary  discipline  may 
be  left  to  rest. 

*  This  epithet  could  not  now  be  appHed  to  the  same  spot  in  August. 


M.  56.]  PROGRESS   OF   THE   UNITED  STATES.  229 


Whenever  I  have  an  opportunity  I  in(|iiire  about  Saxony  and  its 
affairs,  and  am  always  glad  when  I  hear,  as  I  do  almost  always,  of  its 
prosperity  and  welfare.  In  particular,  I  have  been  gratified  to  learn 
that  the  troubles  of  the  last  year  have  ceased  to  agitate  the  country, 
and  that  the  whole  population  is  in  a  state  of  advancing  civiliza- 
tion. There  are  few  parts  of  the  world  in  which  I  am  so  much 
interested. 

I  wish  I  could  report  to  you  as  well  of  my  own  country  as  I  hear 
of  yours.  Of  progress,  indeed,  we  have  enough.  We  advance  in 
power,  in  prosperity,  and  in  intellectual  culture,  with  gigantic  strides ; 
and  I  have  no  doubt  our  future  destiny  is  to  be  one  of  honor,  and  of 
ultimate  benefit  to  the  great  cause  of  humanity.  But,  at  this  moment, 
we  are  engaged  in  a  very  disgraceful  war  with  Mexico  ;  and  one  in 
which,  thus  far,  we  have  been  very  successful.  It  is,  however,  one  of 
the  good  signs  of  the  times,  that,  though  successful,  this  war  grows 
less  and  less  popular  every  day. 

But  I  occupy  myself  entirely  -svith  letters,  and  take  no  part,  but 
such  as  belongs  to  every  citizen,  as  a  duty,  in  the  affairs  of  a  free  coun- 
try. I  hope,  too,  that  you,  though  bound  to  the  state  by  the  most 
onerous  duties,  are  still  able  to  rescue  leisure  for  your  favorite  pur- 
suits. We  look  impatiently  for  the  last  and  crowning  volume  of  your 
labors  on  Dante.     When  shall  we  have  it  ?  .  .  .  . 

I  remain  your  Highness's  affectionate  and  faithful  friend, 

George  Ticknor. 

To  Charles  S.  Daveis,  Portland. 

Boston,  December  9,  1847. 

My  dear  Charles,  —  ....  You  had,  I  dare  say,  a  pleasant 
Thanksgiving,  for  you  have  in  your  own  household,  and  among  your 
own  kin,  all  the  materials  for  it.  Ours,  too,  Avas  pleasant,  and  ended 
at  the  Guilds',  with  the  most  thorough  game  of  romps  I  have  come 
across  for  many  a  year. 

Since  that  time  wx  have  gone  on  with  our  usual  quietness  ;  seeing 
a  good  many  people  at  home,  and  few  anywhere  else.  Gray's  pam- 
phlet "*"  —  of  which  you  acknowledge  the  receipt  —  has  done  its  perfect 
work,  and  settled  the  question  as  between  the  two  systems  of  prison 
discipline.  I  never  knew  anything  of  the  sort  so  well  received,  or 
produce  so  considerable  an  effect.  Mr.  Norton  ended  a  note  to  Gray 
by  sapng,  "  One  lays  doAvn  your  pamphlet  without  feeling  the  least 

*  "Prisou  Discipline  in  America,"  by  F.  C.  Gray.     Boston,  1847. 


230  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOE.  [1848. 

curiosity  about  what  may  be  said  in  reply  to  it,"  ....  and  Webster 
said  he  "  never  expected  to  learn  any  more  on  the  subject ;  it  was 
exhausted  and  settled."  Except  where  dissent  was  sure,  whatever 
might  be  proved,  none  has  been  expressed,  and  even  of  this  sort  there 

has  been  much  less  than  was  expected 

The  last  steamer  brought  me  a  pleasant  letter  from  Hillard,  .... 
and  another  from  Miss  Edgeworth, — aged  eighty-one,  —  written  with 
the  freshness  of  forty.  All  I  hear  makes  me  anxious  for  England, 
and  almost  in  despair  about  Ireland.  Indeed,  all  Europe  seems  to 
have  a  troubled  mist  hanging  over  it ;  but  the  people  of  the  world,  I 
trust,  have  gained  some  of  the  wisdom  which  Cowper  wished  for  them, 
and  do  not  show  themselves  willing  to  play  at  the  game  of  war  to 
y  please  their  princes.     I  have  much  hope  from  progress,  little  from 

\dolent  reforms  ;  God  seems  to  work  in  the  moral  world  by  periods, 
like  the  geological  periods  of  the  great  changes  in  the  natural.  Hal- 
lam  says,  "  Peace  societies  were  attempted  in  the  twelfth  century,  and 
are  no  more  likely  to  succeed  now,  than  they  were  then."  Perhaps 
so  ;  but  more  men  are  now  tired  of  war.  Just  so  it  is  with  slavery  ; 
it  was  never  so  near  its  final  fall  as  it  is  now  ;  but  it  is  decaying  as 
fast  as  it  is  for  the  interest  of  the  slave  that  it  should  ;  and  if  we 
attempt  to  hurry  its  overthrow,  the  cause  of  humanity  will  suffer, 
^         as  it  always  does,  from  violence. 

To  Mr.  Ltell,  London. 

Boston,  April  5,  1848. 

My  dear  Lyell,  —  We  were  truly  glad  to  get  sight  of  your  hand- 
writing again,  it  was  so  long  since  we  have  seen  it But  what 

subjects  you  have  to  discuss  !  We  were  thunderstruck  here  by  the 
convulsion  in  France,  nor  were  you  less  so  in  England.  It  seems  im- 
possible to  come  to  any  reasonable  judgment  on  the  whole  affair,  and 
quite  useless  to  discuss  what,  long  before  our  thoughts  can  reach  you, 
w^ll  have  been  forgotten  in  the  rush  of  revolutionary  changes 

The  Revolution  of  1830  gave  political  power  to  the  middling  class  ; 
that  of  1848  gives  it  to  the  working  class.  Are  they  capable  of  exer- 
cising it  beneficially  to  themselves,  or  to  others  1  We  think  they  are 
not.     Will  they  attempt  practically  to  exercise  it  ?     Not,  we  think,  at 

first But  we  look  for  little  practical  wisdom  in  the  mass  of  the 

French,  and  fear  that  what  there  is  will  not  be  able  to  take  the  lead. 
A  constitution  like  ours  —  one  of  whose  chief  elements  is  to  be  found 
in  the  separate  powers  of  the  separate  States  —  cannot  be  made  effec- 


M  56.]  FRENCH  AFFAIRS.  231 

tive  in  France,  where  there  are  no  historical  foundations  on  which  to 
build  it.  We  look,  therefore,  first,  for  a  great  commercial  trial,  and 
then  for  an  unwise  constitution,  which  will  disappoint  its  makers,  and 

lead  to  further  troubles  and  changes We  are  most  anxious 

about  Italy,  least  so  about  Germany  ;  but  we  expect  the  people  will 
everywhere  demand  concessions  from  their  princes,  and  obtain  them. 

Tell  me  how  much  of  this  is  true I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you 

for  the  abstract  of  your  lecture  before  the  Royal  Institution,  but  am 
sorry  you  do  not  like  to  have  it  reprinted  here 

I  intended  to  have  had  the  pleasure  of  telling  you  myseK  about  my 
Spanish  Literary  History.  But  Prescott,  I  find,  has  done  it  a  little 
before  there  is  anything  to  tell.  The  truth  is,  I  have  finished  the  first 
draft  of  the  work,  and  it  has  just  been  copied  out  into  a  fair  hand. 
But  it  will  still  be  long  before  I  shall  have  corrected  it  and  prepared 
it  for  the  hands  of  the  printer  ;  a  task  I  cannot  find  it  in  my  heart  to 
hurry,  so  agreeable  is  it  to  me. 

Agassiz  continues  to  flourish,  and  enjoys  the  same  sort  of  popular 
favor  he  has  from  the  first.*  His  bonhomie  seems  inexhaustible  ; 
and  how  much  that  does  for  a  man  under  institutions  and  in  a  state 
of  society  like  ours  I  need  not  tell Everett  is  less  and  less  satis- 
fied with  his  position,t  and  I  think  cannot  remain  in  it  beyond  next 
August,  I  feel  confident  he  has  done  much  good  since  he  has  been 
there. 

Write  soon,  and  tell  me  what  you,  and  other  wise  men  think  about 

the  Trastorno.  Faithfully  yours, 

George  Ticknor. 

To  George  T.  Curtis. 

Boston,  April  22,  1848. 
My  dear  George,  —  ....  We  think  and  talk  of  little  here  except 
the  French  and  foreign  affairs.     There  are  so  many  steamers  nowa- 

*  Professor  Louis  Agassiz  came  to  Boston  in  the  year  1846,  and  immediately 
became  a  much-loved  giiest,  and  friend,  at  Mr.  Ticknor's  house.  The  friendship 
was  uniform  and  full  of  warmth  on  both  sides  ;  and  while  the  pursuits  of  the 
two  men,  their  national  pecidiarities,  and  their  modes  of  vieAving  many  subjects, 
were  very  different,  they  took  great  pleasure  in  each  other's  society.  Mr. 
Agassiz  took  counsel  of  Mr,  Ticknor  many  times,  saying  that  the  Avorking  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  mind  was  full  of  valuable  instruction  for  him  ;  while  the  prac- 
tical wisdom  of  his  friend,  individually,  assisted  him  in  settling  questions,  the 
soh;tion  of  which  did  not  lie  in  his  department  as  a  man  of  science, 

+  As  President  of  Harvard  College. 


1 


232  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1848. 

days,  and  magnetic  wires  are  so  successful,  that  we  get  revolutions  by 
driblets,  and  have  something  —  at  least  the  overthrow  of  a  single 
monarchy  —  every  day  or  two.     But  never  was  speculation  more  at 

fault The  truth  is,  we  have  no  precedents  to  go  by.     History 

gives  "US  military  revolutions  and  political  revolutions  enough.  But 
this  is  neither.  It  is  a  social  revolution.  The  hordes  that  broke 
down  the  decaying  civilization  of  the  Old  World,  in  the  fourth  and 
fifth  centuries,  did  it  by  violence.  The  decaying  civilization  of  our 
times  is  assailed  by  social  theories,  which,  it  is  possible,  the  masses 
may  introduce,  by  the  mere  fear  of  their  numbers, — though  this  seems 
highly  improbable,  —  but  which,  if  introduced,  would  lay  waste  the 
world  as  much  as  is  consistent  with  its  present  advancement,  and,  at 
any  rate,  create  an  incredible  amount  of  human  misery,  and  reduce, 
materially,  the  population  of  Christendom.  But  it  seems  to  me  much 
more  likely  that  the  old  order  will  be  maintained  ;  and  if  it  is,  it  can 
only  be  by  reconstructing  society  through  some  strict  despotism,  either 
military  or  civil.  One  more  strict  or  severe  than  now  exists  in  France 
can  hardly  be  imagined.  But  whether  it  be  able  to  do  anything  for 
the  formation  of  a  government  that  will  protect  property  and  life,  is 
very  doubtful. 

For  the  first  month,  during  which  we  have  an  account  of  the  prog- 
ress of  things  in  Paris,  —  or  rather  the  first  forty  days,  —  the  work 
of  destruction  and  the  dissolution  of  society  has  gone  on  faster  than  it 
ever  did  before,  in  any  period  of  the  world's  history.  Power  has  been 
w^holly  in  the  hands  of  an  irresponsible  mob,  to  whom  the  world  had 
not  been  friends,  nor  the  world's  law,  and  who  do  not  feel  that  they 
have  any  interest  or  business  but  to  overturn  everything  that  is  estab- 
lished. The  only  question,  therefore,  is,  how  far  things  are  to  go  on 
in  this  direction  before  a  reaction  takes  place.  The  further  they  go, 
the  severer  must  be  the  power  that  is  to  reconstruct  society.  Etc., 
etc.  > 

It  is  lucky  for  you  that  I  was  interrupted  just  now  by  a  visitor,  who 
has  taken  up  all  the  time  I  have  free  before  this  letter  must  go  off. 
Otherwise  you  might  have  had  more  of  the  dissertation  on  social  revo- 
lutions ;  but  now%  I  will  only  add  that,  under  the  best  aspect  of  things, 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  mischiefs  to  follow  the  convulsions  of  the  last 
few  weeks  will  be  more  lasting  than  those  that  followed  the  convul- 
sions of  1789. 


M  56.]  KEVOLUTIONS  IN  EUROPE.  233 

From  Prince  John,  of  Saxony. 

PiLLNiTZ,  the  14  May,  1848. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  received  your  last  letter,  with  the  books  you 
"were  so  kind  as  to  send  me,  in  the  midst  of  our  greatest  political  con- 
vulsions ;  and  this  may  be  an  excuse  if  I  answer  you  so  late.  But 
before  I  begin  to  speak  of  all  that  has  happened  in  the  Old  World,  I 
must  tliank  you  with  all  my  heart  for  the  interesting  publications 
which  you  have  sent  me,  with  whose  reading  I  am  occupied  at  this 
moment,  and  which  have  almost  shaken  my  opinion,  that  began  to 
be  fixed  for  the  separate  system.  The  dispassionate  and  truly  critical 
mode  of  jDroceeding  of  the  author  inspires  much  confidence.''^ 

If  you  should  return  to  old  Europe  you  would  find  many  things, 
and,  above  all,  the  public  opinion  and  the  leading  persons,  so  entirely 
changed,  that  you  would  think  to  be  in  quite  another  country.  There 
is  almost  not  one  state,  great  or  little,  which  has  not  made  its  revo- 
lution since  the  declaration  of  the  republic  in  France.  Gennany  is 
perhaps  in  a  more  convulsive  state  than  any  other  country,  being  occu- 
pied at  the  same  moment  in  reconstructing  its  general  constitution 
and  the  constitution  of  its  several  states.  The  two  greatest  mon- 
archies—  Prussia  and  Austria — are  shaken  to  their  foundations  ;  the 
last,  above  all,  by  the  great  difference  of  nations  which  are  united 
under  one  crown,  and  which  seem  now  inclined  to  separate  into  so 
many  diff"erent  kingdoms.  With  all  that,  two  wars  in  the  neighbor- 
hood, —  the  one  of  Prussia,  or  rather  Germany,  with  Denmark,  the 
other  of  Austria  with  Italy,  —  and,  what  is  yet  worse,  the  sense  for  le- 
gitimate order,  even  for  property,  when  it  suits  not  the  opinions  of  the 
day,  shaken  to  its  foundation  in  the  lower  classes  ;  the  principles  of  so- 
cialism and  communism  diffusing  themselves  everywhere But 

yet  every  one  must  endeavor  to  hold  his  post  as  long  as  he  can,  and  per- 
haps the  storm  may  pass  away,  and  the  stream  return  to  regular  chan- 
nels, —  not  the  old,  that  seems  impossible,  and  must  not  be  attempted. 

Nevertheless,  I  have  not  forgotten  mv  friend  Dante.  The  "  Para- 
diso  "  is  finished,  and  I  am  only  occupied  with  the  last  correction,  and 
filling  some  blanks  which  I  have  left  in  the  past  labors. 

I  am,  with  the  highest  esteem  and  sincerest  friendship, 

Your  affectionate 

John,  Duke  of  Saxony. 
My  compliments  to  Mrs.  Ticknor. 

*  Mr.  Gray's  pamphlet  on  Prison  Discipline,  of  which  mention  has  already 
been  made. 


234  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1848. 

To  Mr  Lyell. 

Boston,  June  21,  1848. 
My  dear  Lyell,  —  We  are  just  entering  on  one  of  those  political 
campaigns  which,  whatever  be  their  mischiefs,  tend  more  to  give  life 
and  energy  to  our  national  character  than  anything  else  that  comes 
round  as  a  part  of  our  republican  institutions.  The  simple  fact  that 
the  eyes  of  the  whole  poj)ulation  are  directed  to  two  men,  and  their 
thoughts  seriously  fastened  on  the  great  principles  by  which  their 
government  shall  be  administered  for  four  years,  and  even  the  great 
measures  it  shall  adopt,  give  a  concentration  and  authority  to  pubKc 
opinion  that  could  be  given,  so  far  as  I  see,  in  no  other  way,  and 
quite  outweigh  the  disadvantages  of  a  contest,  fierce  while  it  lasts, 
but  never  marked  with  physical  violence,  and  forgotten  as  soon  as  it 
is  over.  Nothing  struck  me  more  in  the  last  election  than  the  abso- 
lute calm  which  instantly  succeeded  the  turbulence  which  had  filled 
the  whole  land  a  week  before.  All  the  storm  that  had  been  so  threat- 
ening was  blown  off,  and  nothing  remained  but  the  steady  power  to 
give  movement  to  the  machinery  of  the  State.     So  it  will  be  now. 

To  George  S.  Hillard. 

July  17,  1818. 

My  dear  Hillard,  —  I  have  your  note  from  London,  and  thank 
you  very  sincerely  for  it.  Its  views  are  discouraging  enough,  but  not 
more  so,  I  fear,  than  are  true,  though  I  do  not  agree  to  all  its  con- 
clusions. 

As  to  the  present  French  and  Continental  convulsions,  which  some 
persons  regard  with  favorable  eyes,  I  can  only  say,  that  during  a  life 
of  seven  or  eight  years  in  Europe,  I  never  was  in  any  country  where 
I  should  have  thought  it  vdse,  or  Christian,  to  join  in  any  such  move- 
ment. The  reason  is  obvious.  Whenever  the  institutions  of  society 
are  so  far  destroyed  as  they  were  in  last  February  and  ]\Iarch  in 
France,  I  take  it  to  be  certain  that  they  can  be  reconstructed  only  on 
a  military  basis,  and  —  whatever  may  be  the  nominal  form  of  govern- 
ment—  that  the  power  for  this  reconstruction  must  be  wielded  by 
the  will  of  one  strong  man,  to  whom  the  mass  of  the  people  will  sub- 
mit gladly,  in  order  to  secure  their  property  and  lives.  But  republics, 
I  much  fear,  cannot  grow  on  the  soil  of  Europe  ;  at  least,  not  repub- 
lics in  the  sense  we  give  to  that  word.  There  is  no  nourishment  for 
them  in  the  present  condition  or  past  history  of  the  nations  there, 
and  if  such  struggles  as  we  have  witnessed  for  the  last  sixty  years  are 


M.  56.]  GROWTH  AND  DECAY  OF  NATIONS.  235 

to  go  on,  with  the  vain  hope  of  obtaining  free  governments,  in  which 
universal  suffrage  shall  make  the  whole  body  of  the  people  a  practi- 
cal sovereign,  nothing  but  a  decay  of  civilization  will  be  the  result. 
Christianity,  almost  powerless  with  the  multitudes  of  a  large  part  of 
Europe,  and  the  press  abused  to  mislead  them,  will  not  have  conser- 
vative energy  enough  to  save  the  most  enlightened  parts  of  the  mod- 
ern world,  from  the  fate  which  befell  the  most  enlightened  parts  of 
the  ancient,  from  struggles  not  dissimilar.  France,  in  the  course  of 
a  thousand  years,  or  in  some  other  of  the  great  periods  which  God  ap- 
points to  the  history  of  nations,  as  he  does  to  the  building  and  decay 
of  the  globe,  may  well  become  what  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt  are  now. 
At  any  rate,  I  think  the  steps  she  is  taking  at  the  present  moment 
are  in  that  direction.  We,  too,  are  no  doubt  going  on  like  the  buried 
nations  of  antiquity,  through  the  changes  of  youth  and  age. 

But  you  and  I  have  the  happiness  to  live  in  the  period  of  our 
greatest  vigor  and  prosperity,  and  in  that  part  of  the  country  where 
the  moral  tone  is  the  highest,  and  the  strength  and  activity  the 
soundest 

I  am  sorry,  as  you  are,  for  the  effect  these  discussions  ^  produce 
upon  society  in  Boston  ;  but  the  principles  of  that  society  are  right, 
and  its  severity  towards  disorganizers,  and  social  democracy  in  all  its 
forms,  is  just  and  wise.  It  keeps  our  standard  of  public  morals  where 
it  should  be,  and  where  you  and  I  claim  to  have  it,  and  is  the  cir- 
cumstance which  distinguishes  us  favorably  from  New  York  and  the 
other  large  cities  of  the  Union,  where  demagogues  are  permitted  to 
rule,  by  the  weak  tolerance  of  men  who  know  better,  and  are  stronger 
than  they  are.  In  a  society  where  public  opinion  governs,  unsound 
opinions  must  be  rebuked,  and  you  can  no  more  do  that,  while  you 
treat  their  apostles  with  favor,  than  you  can  discourage  bad  books  at 
the  moment  you  are  buying  and  circulating  them 


To  Prince  John,  of  Saxony. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  July  30,  1848. 
My  dear  Prince,  —  Your  kind  and  interesting  letter  of  the  14th 
of  May,  with  one  from  Count  Circourt,  WTitten  after  he  had  been  at 
Dresden,  have  kept  you  almost  constantly  in  our  thoughts  of  late. 
Indeed,  it  is  difl&cult  to  think  of  anything  else  but  the  cTianges  that 
are  now  going  on,  like  a  solemn  drama,  in  Europe  ;  not  only  because 
the  fate  and  fortunes  of  so  many  of  our  personal  friends  are  put  at 

*  On  Prison  Discipline. 


236  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1843. 

hazard  by  them,  but  because  they  involve  so  deeply  the  cause  of 
Christian  civilization  and  the  paramount  interests  of  our  conmion 
humanity. 

We  feel,  to  be  sure,  comparatively  safe  ourselves.  Our  people  are 
young  ;  we  have  room  enough  and  bread  enough  for  all ;  free  insti- 
tutions are  the  only  ones  that,  even  in  colonial  days,  took  root  here  ; 
we  have  been  gradually  and  thoroughly  educated  to  them,  and  every 
year  manage  them  with  a  more  practised  skill  ;  in  short,  from  our  vast 
local  advantages,  and  from  the  whole  course  of  our  history  as  a  nation, 
a  republic  is  a  truth  here  ;  but  what  is  it  in  France,  or  what  can  it  be 
either  there  or  in  Germany  ? 

You  will  not  be  surprised  to  hear  that  wise  men  in  the  United 
States  saw,  from  the  first,  that  no  good  was  to  come  —  except  as  God 
brings  good  out  of  evil  —  from  the  violent  changes  that  began  in  the 
South  of  Europe  and  in  France  last  winter,  because  they  saw  plainly 
that,  if  the  institutions  of  society  are  once  destroyed,  —  as  they  were 
in  Paris  in  February,  ]\Iarch,  and  April,  —  they  can  be  reconstructed 
only  on  the  basis  of  a  military  despotism,  and  in  the  presence  and  by 
the  authority  of  the  bayonet.  But  you  will,  perhaps,  be  somewhat 
surprised  to  learn  that  the  great  mass  of  our  people  at  the  North  felt 
no  confidence  in  the  French  movement  from  its  outset  ;  no  more 
confidence,  I  may  say,  than  did  the  wiser.  They  are  accustomed 
every  day  to  the  workings  of  a  truly  popular  government,  and  they 
saw  little  in  France  that  reminded  them  of  their  own  experience,  and 
nothing  to  justify  the  belief  that  a  wise  republic  would  be  founded, 
in  which  the  people,  by  severe  organic  laws,  would  limit  its  own 
powers  ;  in  which  labor  and  capital  would  rest  on  the  same  founda- 
tions ;  and  in  which  the  rights  of  the  minority  would  be  protected  by 
the  same  principles  that  give  the  majority  all  its  control  of  the  state. 
They  knew  that  a  people  who  not  only  are  "without  knowledge  enough 
to  be  able  to  read  and  write,  but  "\Wthout  the  more  important  political 
education  which  enables  them  to  judge  the  measures  of  the  govern- 
ment they  have  created,  —  they  knew  that  such  a  people  can  never 
make  a  wise,  practical  sovereign. 

All  men,  therefore,  with  few  exceptions,  in  this  part  of  America, 
have  judged  the  changes  in  France  rigorously,  but  rightly,  from  the 
first  ;  predicting  events  from  time  to  time  as  they  have  occurred,  and 
looking  now  to  no  more  favorable  results  than  they  anticipated  four 

months  ago 

Very  faithfully,  my  dear  Prince, 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

George  Ticknor. 


JE.  57.]  PARTIES  IN  EUROPE.  237 

From  Prince  John,  of  Saxony. 

PiLLNiTZ,  3  September,  1848. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  received  some  time  ago  your  long  and  interest- 
ing letter  of  the  30th  July.  It  is  very  curious  to  hear  the  impression 
which  our  great  political  convulsions  make  on  an  impartial  spectator, 
placed  at  a  distance,  on  a  secure  ground.  Yet  perhaps  it  may  be 
likewise  interesting  to  you  to  hear  the  description  of  one  who  is 
in  the  midst  of  the  tempest.  In  general,  I  must  say  that  since  I 
wrote  you  last  the  public  spirit  is  become  better,  yet  we  are  not  at 
the  end  of  the  crisis  ;  and  I  fear  the  last  decision  will  be  that  of  the 
sword. 

One  can  distinguish,  in  general,  five  great  divisions  of  opinion  in 
Europe.  1.  The  anarchical  party,  or  party  of  the  red  repuldicans, 
composed  of  a  great  part  of  the  proletaires,  of  some  men  of  broken  for- 
tunes, who  like  revolutions  for  revolution's  sake,  and  of  the  disciples 
of  communism  and  socialism.  2.  The  republicans,  who  wish  a  legal 
introduction  of  a  republic.  The  number  of  this  party  I  think  com- 
paratively small,  yet  it  is  to  be  feared  that  on  some  occasion  it  may 
lend  its  forces  to  the  first  party.  3.  The  men  for  monarchy,  with 
the  broadest  democratical  basis,  who  will  have  monarchy  without 
any  power  in  the  monarch,  and  without  the  necessary  condition  of 
it.  This  party,  which  is  very  numerous,  rejects  all  census  of  eligi- 
bility and  the  first  chamber.  4.  The  conservative  liberal  party,  com- 
posed of  the  ancient  liberal  opposition,  not  so  numerous,  yet  weightier 
with  respect  to  intelligence  than  the  last,  but  partly  overwhelmed  by 
the  consetpiences  of  its  own  system.  5.  The  ancient  aristocratical 
party,  overawed  for  the  moment.  The  most  intelligent  men  in  it 
feel  that  they  cannot  oppose  the  torrent,  and  make  common  cause 
with  the  liberal  conservative  party. 

Since  the  late  events  in  France  and  at  Prague,  and  the  victories  of 
Austria  in  Italy,  the  conservative  parties  have  gained  in  courage  and 
activity,  and  this  is  the  best  symptom  of  our  present  situation.  But 
if  a  union  of  the  third-named  party  with  the  two  republican  fractions 
should  take  place,  the  position  would  be  very  dangerous.  As  for  the 
particular  countries,  the  conservative  liberal  party,  which  is  there  not 
so  much  separated  from  what  I  called  the  party  of  democratical  mon- 
archy, has  been  for  the  moment  victorious  in  France.  In  that  coun- 
try, liberty  is  not  so  much  what  men  desire,  as  equality  and  order. 
This  is  the  reason  why  Cavaignac  can  take  many  measures  against  the 
press  and  associations,  which  no  German  government  could  venture 


238  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1848. 

to  propose.  The  parties  now  at  the  head  of  the  government  know 
not  what  to  do  with  their  repubKc,  which  was  given  to  them  by  the 
republican  and  anarchical  parties  against  their  wishes  ;  and  I  am 
persuaded  that  monarchy  —  perhaps  a  rather  despotic  monarchy  — 
will  in  time  be  re-established  in  France. 

In  Italy  the  movement  was  more  the  work  of  a  faction  than  of  the 
people  ;  of  a  faction  composed  of  the  nobility,  the  higher  classes  of  the 
bourgeoisie,  and  a  part  of  the  clergy,  and  influenced  more  by  national 
than  by  political  ideas.  Since  the  victories  of  Radetsky,  —  a  marvellous 
old  man  of  eighty-three,  —  the  enthusiasm  seems  extinguishing  ;  the 
people,  over  all  the  people  of  the  open  couatry,  have  received  every- 
where the  Austrians  as  deliverers,  and  if  France  does  not  mingle  itself 
in  the  contest,  things  will  be  re-established  in  the  ancient  limits,  yet 
with  popular  institutions.  Yet  this  is  the  point  where  the  danger  of 
a  general  war  is  the  most  threatening. 

As  for  us  in  Germany,  the  situation  is  more  complicated.  It  is  not 
only  the  constitutions  of  the  particular  states  that  have  been  shaken, 
but  the  whole  confederation  is  to  be  re-established  on  a  new  basis. 
The  two  constitutional  monarchical  parties  are  disputing  the  ground 
with  that  acrimony  which  characterizes  our  German  theoretical  dis- 
putes. But  with  respect  to  the  whole  of  Germany  there  is  another 
question  dividing  the  opinions,  —  the  question  of  centralization  and 
of  particularism.  As  for  my  opinion,  a  constitution  like  that  of  the 
United  States  would,  in  this  point  of  view,  be  the  best.  Self-govern- 
ment of  the  particular  States  as  the  rule,  and  centralization  of  all  that 
is  necessary  for  preserving  unity,  as  foreign  affairs,  the  army,  the  fleet, 
and  the  general  commercial  regulations.  I  think  this  is  likewise  the 
opinion  of  the  majority  at  Frankfurt  ;  but,  nevertheless,  I  fear  that 
we  take  there,  in  many  respects,  a  false  way 

With  us  in  Saxony,  things  are  relatively  better,  and  have  even  made 
a  progress  since  last  spring.  The  loyal  and  benevolent  character  of 
the  King  is  generally  estimated,  and  there  is  yet  a  fund  of  true  attach- 
ment for  his  person The  King  was  lately  at  Leipzig,  and  was 

received  there  with  the  greatest  demonstration  of  loyalty 

You  ask  me  some  news  of  the  King  and  my  family.  We  are  all 
tolerably  well,  after  these  great  convulsions,  the  King  much  better 
since  last  spring.  My  family  is  growing  up,  my  second  daughter 
25romised  to  the  Duke  of  Genoa,  son  of  the  King  of  Sardinia,  but  the 
political  circumstances  have  retarded  the  marriage 

The  notices  you  gave  me  about  the  question  of  prison  reform  are 
very  interesting.      I  am  sorry  that  Gray's  book  is  so  little  known 


M.  57.]  LIFE  AT  THE  SEA-SHORE.  239 

in  Europe.    I  will  endeavor  to  render  it  more  public.    The  "  Paradi.so  " 

is  finished,  and  I  hope  the  impression  will  soon  begin. 

Your  sincere  friend, 

John,  Duke  of  Saxony. 

To  Charles  S.  Daveis, 

Manchester,  September  10,  1848.* 
My  dear  Charles," — You  have  not  kept  your  tryst How- 
ever, I  dare  say  we  shall  find  a  room  for  you,  if  you  will  find  a  locus 
pcenitentice  for  us,  though,  as  we  have  no  safety-valve  in  our  territory, 
like  the  Tremont  House,  and  as  our  own  hotel  is  rather  popular,  not 
to  say  populous,  just  now,  I  recommend  it  to  you  to  give  us  notice  a 

day  or  two  if  you  have  any  kind  purpose  in  our  favor We 

have  had  beautiful  weather  ever  since  you  were  here,  and  much  good, 
pleasant  company  staying  with  us.  I  only  wish  you  had  been  with 
us  to  share  our  pleasures,  both  rural  and  marine,  bucolic  and  pis- 
catory. 

Of  the  external  world  I  know  little.  I  have  been  in  Boston  but 
once  for  above  two  months,  and  hope  not  to  be  obliged  to  go  there 
again  for  above  a  month  more.  But,  now  and  then,  somebody  comes 
to  me  wandering  over  the  morning  dew,  —  as  the  shepherds  did  to 
Parnell's  Hermit,  —  and  I  hear  in  this  way  of  the  bustle  of  the  great 
world  of  our  little  city,  without  being  incommoded  by  its  stir.  From 
what  I  hear  I  suspect  the  early  Taylorites  in  my  neighborhood  do  not 

feel  so  easy  as  they  did  when  I  saw  them  last Moreover,  they 

begin  to  be  afraid,  as  Macbeth  did,  that  they  have  "'filed  their 
minds,"  after  all,  for  somebody's  else  benefit  and  not  for  their  own,  or 
that  of  their  party.  They  begin  to  be  afraid,  in  short,  that  Taylor 
may  not  be  chosen.  ....  I  am,  on  the  contrary,  of  the  mind  of  the 
elder  brother  in  "  Comus  "  :  — 

"  I  incline  to  hope,  rather  than  fear. 
And  gladly  banish  squint  suspicion." 

I  shall  vote  for  Taylor,  and  if  you  do  as  well  for  him  in  ]VIaine  as 
Vermont  has  done,  you  will  yet  give  him  your  personal  vote  as  an 

elector 

I  write  to  you  about  politics  because  there  is  nothing  else  hereabouts 
to  send  you,  except  a  little  orthodoxy  from  the  village  church,  or  a 

*  This  and  the  two  following  summers  were  passed  by  Mr.  Ticknor  on  the 
northern  shore  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  where  he  had  hired  a  pleasant  house, 
standing  on  the  edge  of  a  cliff  directly  by  the  sea,  and  having  a  hundred  acres 
of  wood  and  field  around  it. 


240  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1849. 


little  of  the  noXvcjAola^oLo  BaXao-cnjs  from  tlie  beach  before  us.  We 
have  had  Mrs.  Norton  and  some  of  her  children  staying  with  us,  and 
expect  them  again.  Gray,  too,  has  been  here,  the  Everetts,  Prescotts, 
and  so  on.  We  have  not  been  alone  since  the  first  few  days  after  we 
came  down,  and  are  not  likely  to  be  as  long  as  we  stay. 

To  Sir  Charles  Ltell,  Bart.,  London. 

Boston,  May  15,  1849. 

Dear  Lyell,  —  As  we  are  decidedly  imitating  your  emeutes  in 
Europe,  I  send  you  two  or  three  newspapers  extra,  of  all  complexions, 
that  you  may  see  how  we  get  on."^  ....  One  or  two  moral  reflections 
I  must  make. 

The  people  here  about  twelve  years  ago  first  began  to  feel  that  a 
mob  impaired  the  popular  sovereignty.  The  first  proper  firing  of  the 
people  on  a  mob  was  at  Providence,  where  a  mob  undertook  to  pull 
down  some  houses  of  ill-fame.  Since  then  it  has  been  frequently 
done ;  as,  for  instance,  at  Philadelphia,  in  the  case  of  the  Catholic 
riots,  the  attack,  I  mean,  on  the  Catholics.  But  this  at  New  York 
is  the  most  decisive  of  all.  The  work  was  thoroughly  done,  both  by 
the  police  and  the  militia  ;  and  it  has  been  sustained  by  an  unanimous 
cry  from  the  whole  country,  as  far  as  heard  from ;  but  the  farther 
from  New  York  the  louder,  even  from  the  lowest  and  most  vulgar  of 
the  penny  papers  in  New  York  and  Boston.  I  think  it  settles  the 
question,  that  the  sovereign  people  will  defend  its  sovereignty  against 
the  mob  at  all  hazards,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  this  feeling  will  not 
make  government  among  us  as  strong  as  it  is  anywhere.  The  difii- 
culty  is,  that  we  must  work  by  cure,  not  by  prevention.  But  then 
such  cures  are  like  certain  diseases,  that  disinfect  the  constitution. 

You  may  set  it  down  as  a  fact  that  the  whole  country  goes  with  the 

city  authorities  at  New  York  in  relation  to  the  late  mobs It 

would  certainly  be  easier  now  to  put  down  any  form  of  anarchy  in 
any  city  in  the  United  States  than  it  was  a  fortnight  ago.  There  is  a 
confidence  which  no  man  had  a  right  to  feel  then,  but  which  all  feel 
now,  since  two  hundred  and  ten  soldiers,  called  from  the  mass  of  the 
people,  at  two  hours'  notice,  faced  and  overcame  a  mob  twenty  thou- 
sand in  number,  and  of  which  about  one  thousand  were  ill  disj)osed. 
Nearly  every  person  injured,  killed,  or  arrested  was  a  foreigner ;  so 

*  This  refers  to  the  "  Astor  Place  "  riots  in  New  York,  when  Mr.  Macready 
was  attacked  by  a  mob,  in  consequence  of  the  course  taken  by  Mr.  Edwin 
Forrest,  who  attempted  to  put  down  the  English  actor. 


^.58.]  HORATIO  GREENOUGH.  241 

were  three  fourths  of  those  present,  and  nineteen  twentieths  of  the 
active  mob.  When  we  think  that  the  Parliament  House  in  Montreal 
was  burnt  down  only  a  month  ago  in  the  presence,  as  it  were,  of  two 
thousand  regular  troops,  and  the  governor  there  insulted  and  mobbed, 
we  feel  as  if  our  government  were  growing  strong,  and  that  it  may 
live  to  grow  old.  Certainly  I  feel  a  vastly  greater  confidence  in 
both  its  stability  and  its  wisdom  than  I  did  five-and-twenty  years 


ago. 


The  California  fever  is  spreading  fast There  is,  in  fact,  in 

our  Anglo-Saxon  blood  more  of  a  spirit  of  adventure  and  romance 
than  belongs  to  the  age,  mingled  with  a  gravity  and  forecast  that  are 
natural  to  it.  Companies  collect  here  with  rules  of  the  severest  kind 
for  their  government,  invite  an  eloquent  preacher  to  pray  with  them 
and  address  them  on  their  duties  ;  bind  themselves  to  the  most  abso- 
lute temperance  ;  and  then  set  forth  upon  an  adventure  as  wild  as 
ever  a  cavallero  conquistador  dreamt  of.  Meantime,  the  most  authen- 
tic accounts  are  the  most  extravagant 

But  as  long  as  Congress  quarrels  about  the  extension  of  slavery,  so 

long  there  can  be  no  government  in  California,  and  every  man  will  do 

what  seems  good  in  his  own  eyes ;  a  state  of  things  that  does  not 

promise  an  advance  in  civilization.     Indeed,  in  any  event,  it  will  be  a 

curse  to  most  persons  who  go  there  ;  perhaps  to  the  world 

Yours  always, 

G.  T. 

To  Horatio  Greenough,  Esq. 

Boston,  December  15,  1849. 
My  dear  Mr.  Greenough,  —  I  received,  a  short  time  since,  your 
kind  letter  written  in  October,  announcing  to  me  that  you  had  shipped 
for  Boston  a  bas-relief,  which  you  destine  for  me."*^     It  has  not  yet 

*  The  history  of  this  bas-relief  is  interesting,  and  creditable  to  both  parties. 
In  Mr.  Greenough's  youth,  Mr.  Ticknor,  and  other  gentlemen  who  withheld  their 
names,  enabled  the  young  sculptor  to  go  to  Italy  and  pursue  his  art,  doing  it 
partly  by  direct  assistance,  and  partly  by  such  assurances  as  inspired  him  with 
confidence  in  times  of  difficulty  and  depression.  Knowing  no  one  in  the  matter 
but  Mr.  Ticknor,  he  expressed  his  gratitude  for  the  collective  kindness  by 
making  this  bas-relief,  one  of  his  most  graceful  works,  and  almost  his  latest, 
and  sending  it  as  a  gift.  It  represents  an  artist  sitting  in  an  attitude  of  dejec- 
tion before  his  work,  —  a  female  figure,  —  while  a  hand,  unseen  by  him,  pours 
oil  into  his  expiring  lamp.  This  charming  work  stands  in  the  entrance-hall  of 
Mr.  Ticknor's  house,  and  it  was  a  pleasure  to  him  that  Mr.  Greenough,  before 
Lis  death,  saw  it  in  its  place,  and  was  satisfied  with  its  position. 

VOL.  II.  11  P 


242  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1849. 

arrived,  but  I  feel  that  I  ought  not  to  delay  thanking  you  for  it  on 
that  account.  The  little  assistance  you  needed  when  young  seems  so 
trifling  a  matter,  when  compared  with  the  acknowledgment  you  make 
for  it,  that  I  hardly  know  what  I  should  say.  But  when  I  receive  it 
I  will  write  again.  Meantime,  be  assured  that  I  feel  your  kindness 
and  thoughtfulness  very  sensibly.  And  I  ought  to  ;  for  it  is  rare  that 
such  little  favors  are  so  long  remembered  ;  and,  if  it  be  any  pleasure 
to  you  to  think  so,  you  may  have  the  satisfaction  of  understanding 
that  you  have  acknowledged  many  obligations  of  others,  besides  this 
inconsiderable  one  of  your  own,  and  that  I  regard  them  all  as  can- 
celled, both  those  that  have  been  forgotten  and  those  that  have  not, 
by  this  one  return. 

I  wish  we  were  likely  to  see  more  of  your  works  here,  and  do  not 
despair  of  it.  But  things  have  been  so  unsettled  for  the  last  two 
years,  and  the  great  material  interests  of  New  England  are  so  much 
jeoparded,  that  no  appeal  to  public  liberality  has  been  ventured  in 

Boston  for  a  long  period But  be  assured  that  it  would  give  me 

very  great  pleasure  to  see  a  bronze  statue  of  Washington  by  you  in 
State  Street,  and  that  whenever  a  favorable  time  for  it  may  come,  I 
shall  be  most  happy  to  co-operate  with  your  other  friends  in  placing 
it  there. 

The  state  of  things  here  is,  indeed,  in  many  respects  very  little 
creditable  to  us.  We  have  not,  I  am  aware,  the  troubles  that  break 
up  society,  and  put  in  danger  civilization  itself.  These  are  the  trials 
of  countries  entering  into  the  period  of  old  age.  But  we  have  our 
own  peculiar  trials,  and  just  at  this  moment  we  feel  them  severely. 


iE.  48-58.]      "HISTORY  OF  SPANISH  LITERATURE."  243 


CHAPTEE    XII. 

"  History  of  Spanish  Literature."  —  Long  Preparation.  —  Purpose  of 
interesting  the  general  Reader.  —  Correspondence  with  Washington 
Irving,  Don  Pascual  de  Gayangos,  and  Dr.  Julius.  —  Growth  of  his 
Spanish  Library.  —  Manuscript  of  the  Worh  submitted  to  Mr.  Pres- 
cott.  —  Publication,  i7i  New  York  and  London,  in  1849.  —  Revieu's, 
etc.  —  Letters  from  J.  L.  Motley,  H.  Hallam,  and  Tied:.  —  Tliird 
and  Fourth  Editions. 

DUEING  all  the  years  since  his  return  from  Europe,  Mr. 
Ticknor  had  been  steadily  occupied  with  the  preparation 
of  the  chief  work  of  his  life ;  that  on  which  his  reputation  as 
a  scholar,  and  his  widest  claim  to  distinction,  must  rest, — the  ' 

"History  of  Spanish  Literature."  He  devoted  himself  to  this 
labor,  as  was  his  wont,  with  noiseless  but  unflagging  industry, 
building  his  edifice,  from  the  foundation,  with  solidity  and  pre-  ! 

cision ;  and  while,  of  course,  it  was  founded  on  the  studies  of 
twenty  previous  years,  he  threw  aside,  without  hesitation,  all 
that  he  had  composed,  during  that  period,  in  the  form  of  lectures. 

For  a  long  time  no  trace  appears  in  his  correspondence,  of  this 
his  principal  occupation,  and,  until  very  shortly  before  the  publi- 
cation of  the  book,  it  is  mentioned  only  in  those  letters  through  \ 
which  he  sought  materials  and  information.  The  friends  on 
whom  he  had  no  demands  to  make  for  this  object  were  not  re- 
quired to  share  in  an  interest  which  did  not  naturally  coincide 
with  their  habits  of  mind,  and  in  his  correspondence,  as  in  his 
daily  life,  he  kept  the  even  tenor  of  his  way,  meeting  the  claims 
of  others  on  his  time  and  thoughts,  without  exacting  the  sympa-  [ 
thy  which  did  not  flow  from  a  common  enthusiasm.  \ 

The  subject  he  had  chosen  attracted  him  wonderfully.  In- 
deed, it  must  be  said,  as  preface  to  all  else  on  this  theme,  that 
rarely  has  a  man  of  letters  fallen  upon  a  subject  wliicli  more  en-  I 


244  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1842. 

tirely  or  more  increasingly  satisfied  and  interested  him.  Instead 
of  growing  eager  to  complete  this,  and  take  up  some  other  work ; 
instead  of  becoming  impatient  to  bring  his  favorite  matter,  or 
himself,  before  the  public,  —  having  the  brilliant  success  of  his 
friend  Prescott  to  stimulate  him  in  that  direction,  —  he  lingered 
over  his  preparations  with  affection,  acknowledging  that  he  dis- 
liked to  part  with  the  work  after  ten  years'  devotion.  From 
time  to  time,  his  nephew,  Mr.  George  T.  Curtis,  asked  him  how 
soon  he  intended  to  stop  collecting,  and  to  begin  printing,  and 
he  would  only  answer,  "When  I  have  done."  In  April,  1848,  '' 
he  calls  it  "  a  task  I  cannot  find  it  in  my  heart  to  hurry,  so  agree- 
able is  it  to  me."  '^ 

His  love  of  exactness,  of  thoroughness,  of  finding  the  nearest 
possible  approach  to  absolute  truth,  was  a  very  prevailing  ele- 
ment in  his  character,  cultivated  into  a  habit,  which  affected  all 
his  thoughts  and  utterances ;  and  this  had  its  influence  in  the 
prolongation  of  his  labors  on  the  book.  It  also  had  much  to  do 
with  the  success  of  the  History  ;  for  the  thoroughness  of  his  in- 
vestigations, and  the  exceeding  care  shown,  in  all  particulars,  to 
arrive  at  facts,  and  to  express  them  accurately,  has  always  been 
generally  acknowledged. 

Meanwhile,  this  absorbing  occupation  did  not  separate  him,  or 
induce  him  to  seclude  himself,  from  the  current  of  social  and 
domestic  life.  His  library  door  always  stood  open,  —  not  figu- 
ratively only,  but  literally,  —  and  no  orders  excluded  visitors  of 
any  degree.  He  had,  also,  after  his  return  home,  in  1838,  re- 
sumed his  hospitable  habits,  as  well  as  his  connection  with  the 
more  important  societies  and  charities  to  which  he  had  been 
attached ;  but  his  powers  of  concentration  and  methodical  regu- 
lation of  mind  made  him  master  of  his  time.  When  he  left 
town  for  the  summer  he  always  carried  a  mass  of  books  with 
him,  selected  with  reference  to  some  division  of  his  work,  to 
which  he  intended  devoting  himself  during  his  absence ;  and  his 

*  Mr.  Samuel  Rogers,  the  English  poet,  when  Mr.  Ticknor's  book  was  pub- 
lished and  a  copy  of  it  lay  on  his  table,  said  to  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  in  allusion  to 
it,  "  I  am  told  it  has  been  the  work  of  his  life.  How  these  Bostonians  do 
work !  " 


M.  50.]  LETTER  TO  WASHINGTON  IRVING.  245 

writing-table  was  arranged  and  became  as  much  his  natural  re- 
sort at  a  hotel,  where  he  was  to  stay  a  short  time,  as  was  his 
library  table  at  home.  An  old  Spanish  book  seemed  to  take 
him  out  of  the  world  around  him,  wherever  he  might  be ;  yet  if 
any  person,  high  or  low,  interrupted  his  studies,  having  a  rea- 
sonable cause  for  doing  so,  he  was  habitually  prompt  and  cour- 
teous in  turning  to  the  new  subject  brought  before  him.  He 
was  rarely  absent-minded,  and  scarcely  ever  visibly  impatient  of 
interruption. 

The  growth  of  the  History  is  intimately  connected  with  the 
growth  of  his  Spanish  library,  for  his  books  were  his  necessary 
tools,  and  the  library  took  its  character  from  the  literary  pur- 
pose for  which  it  was  collected.  His  correspondence  with  Don 
Pascual  de  Gayangos,*  his  constant  orders  to  Mr.  Eich,t  and  to 
others,  for  Spanish  books,  and  for  all  accessory  materials,  became, 
as  the  years  went  on,  more  and  more  marked  by  indications  of 
the  absorbing  subject  he  had  in  hand. 

Three  years  and  a  half  after  his  return  to  America  he  wrote  as 
follows  to  Mr.  Washington  Irving,  who  had  just  accepted  the 
post  of  Minister  from  the  United  States  to  Spain,  and  with 
whom,  it  had  been  hoped,  Mr.  Cogswell  would  go  as  Secretary 
of  Legation  :  — 

To  Washington  Irving,  Esq.,  New  York. 

Boston,  March  31,  1842. 

My  dear  Mr.  Irving,  —  Cogswell's  decision  throws  me  quite  out 
of  my  track,  and  leaves  me  no  resource  but  to  turn  to  you.  I  trust, 
however,  that  my  little  affairs  will  give  you  almost  no  trouble,  and 
therefore  I  will  tell  you  quite  frankly  how  they  stand,  and  how  much 
help  I  must  ask  of  you.  Please  to  tell  me  in  return,  as  frankly,  if  it 
will  he  quite  convenient  for  you  to  fulfil  my  wishes,  and  if  it  will  not, 
let  me  beg  you  to  say  so  without  the  least  hesitation. 

I  have  been  employed  for  some  time  on  a  "  History  of  Spanish  Lit- 
erature," and  need  for  it  copies  of  a  few  manuscripts  to  be  foim.d  in 

*  See  ante,  pp.  161  and  182. 

■f  Mr.  Obadiah  Rich,  once  Consul  of  the  United  States  at  Port  Mahon,  a 
faithful  and  cultivated  bibliopole,  was,  as  a  London  bookseller,  Mr.  Ticknor's 
agent  for  many  years. 


J 


246  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1842. 

Madrid  and  in  the  Escorial.  A  young  Spaniard  named  Pascual  de 
Gayangos  has  helped  me  already  somewhat,  and  has  volunteered  to 
procure  the  copies  ;  but  he  lives  in  London,  and  is  going  with  his 
nice,  pretty  English  wife  to  Tunis  as  Spanish  Consul,  moved  to  it  by 
his  vast  Arabic  learning,  which  he  hopes  there  to  increase.  He  is  an 
excellent,  and,  besides,  an  agreeable  person,  who  was  much  liked  at 
Holland  House,  and  is  well  known  and  in  good  request  in  much  of 
the  best  literary  society  of  London  ;  the  author  of  the  article  on  Pres- 
cott's  "  Ferdinand  and  Isabella "  in  the  "  Edinburgh  Review,"  etc., 
etc.  Now,  I  wish  your  permission  to  have  him  come  and  see  you  in 
London,  which  I  will  desire  him  to  do,  and  let  him  give  you  a  writ- 
ten memorandum  of  what  he  has  ordered  for  me  in  Madrid,  the  person 
of  whom  he  has  ordered  it,  and  the  best  mode  of  accomplishing  there 

all  I  desire,  which  is  really  not  much Pray  do  not  think  me 

unreasonable,  and  pray  refuse  me  plainly  if  you  foresee  more  trouble 
in  it  than  I  do. 

I  am  very  sorry  you  are  not  coming  to  Boston  to  embark.  We 
should  have  given  you  a  hearty  welcome,  and,  if  good  wishes  could 
help,  you  should  have  been  well  sped  on  your  passage.  As  it  is,  we 
can  only  hope  that  you  may  take  us  on  your  return.  I\Ieantime, 
allow  me  to  write  to  you  in  Madrid,  if  I  happen  to  get  into  any 
unexpected  bother  for  want  of  a  rare  book  or  an  unpublished  manu- 
script. 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

G.  TiCKNOR. 

Almost  simultaneously  with  the  foregoing  letter  he  wrote  to 
Mr.  de  Gayangos,  with  whom  he  had  already  been  in  corre- 
spondence for  some  time,  who  gave  him  unremittingly  the  most 
valuable  and  faithful  aid,  in  every  possible  way,  for  the  further- 
ance of  his  work,  and  to  whom  he  once  wrote  :  "  Nothing  en- 
courages and  helps  me  in  my  study  of  Spanish  literature  like 
your  contributions." 

To  Don  Pascual  de  Gayangos,  London. 

Boston,  March  30,  1842. 

My  dear  Friend,  —  Since  I  wrote  you,  February  17 -March  1,  I 

have  received  both  your  kind  letters  of  January  28  and  March  2. 

They  have  gratified  me  very  much.     I  am,  indeed,  sorry  that  you  are 

unwilling  to  sell  the  books  you  have  been  so  very  good  as  to  lend 


M.  52.]  LETTERS  TO  DON  P.   DE  GAYANGOS.  247 

me  ;  *  but,  certainly,  I  have  not  the  least  disposition  to  complain  of 
your  decision.  On  the  contrary,  if  the  books  were  mine,  I  am  per- 
suaded I  should  not  part  with  them,  and  for  all  that  you  have  done 
in  relation  to  them,  and  to  me,  I  can  only  feel  gratitude.  For  your 
very  generous  offer  of  the  works  of  Gregorio  Silvestre,  I  will  consider 
it.  But  I  must  not  be  unreasonable,  and  if  I  do  not  accept  it,  you 
may  be  sure  that  I  am  just  as  thankful  for  your  kindness  as  if  I  did, 

I  am  much  disappointed  that  my  friend  Mr.  Cogswell  has  refused 
the  appointment  of  Secretary  of  Legation  at  Madrid  ;  preferring  to 
remain  in  New  York,  as  librarian  of  a  great  library  just  about  to  be 
established  there. t  Who  will  be  his  successor  I  do  not  know,  and 
shall  hardly  interest  myself  again  to  procure  the  place  for  anybody. 
Irving  will  do  all  he  can  to  help  Prescott  and  myself,  for  his  kind- 
ness may  be  entirely  relied  upon  ;  but  he  was  never  very  active  ;  he 
is  now  growing  old,  and  his  knowledge  of  books  and  bibliography  is 
not  at  all  like  Cogswell's.  I  must,  therefore,  rely  much  upon  your 
advice,  and  shall  be  very  glad  to  be  put  in  communication  with  Don 
Fermin  Gonzalo  Moron,  or  any  other  person  in  Madrid,  bookseller, 
book-collector,  or  whatever  he  may  be,  that  will  assist  me  in  obtain- 
ing what  I  want.  As  you  are  good  enough  to  ask  me  for  a  list  of  the 
books  and  manuscripts  I  wish  to  obtain,  I  enclose  one ;  but  what  I 
desire  especially  to  know  is,  ichat  I  can  buy,  for  I  very  often  might 
purchase  books  of  whose  existence  I  had  before  no  knowledge,  as, 
yesterday,  I  received  from  the  Canon  Riego's  library  a  copy  of  "  Da- 
mian  de  Vegas,"  Toledo,  1590,  of  which  I  never  heard  till  I  found  it 
in  his  catalogue. 

To  Don  Pascual  de  Gayangos,  Madrid. 

Niagara  Falls,  N.  Y.,  July  24,  1844, 
My  dear  Mr.  Gayangos,  —  I  have  not  Amtten  to  you  lately, 
because  I  have  been  absent  from  home  for  the  last  two  months, 
travelling  in  the  interior  of  Pennsylvania  and  New  York  for  Mrs. 
Ticknor's  health,  which,  I  am  happy  to  add,  is  wholly  restored  by 
it,  so  that  we  are  now  about  to  return  to  Boston.  Meantime,  I  have 
received  your  kind  letters  of  April  17  and  May  14.     I  was  sorry  to 

*  Mr.  Gayangos  generously  lent  Mr,  Ticknor  many  volumes  from  his  own 
library,  which  were  of  great  service.  They  came  in  successive  parcels  across 
the  ocean,  and  were  returned  to  him  in  the  same  way. 

t  Mr.  Cogswell  remained,  at  the  request  of  Mr,  John  Jacob  Astor,  to  organize 
the  library  he  had  promised  to  found,  which  was  not,  however,  estabUshed  for 
several  years. 


248  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1844. 

learn  by  the  last  the  death  of  your  eldest  child,  and  pray  you  to  ac- 
cept my  sincere  sympathy  for  it.  I  know  how  to  feel  for  you,  for  I, 
too,  have  suffered. 

I  shall  be  extremely  glad  to  receive  the  manuscripts  and  books, 
both  old  and  recent,  that  you  have  been  so  good  as  to  purchase  for 
me.  I  shall  be  interested  to  see  the  translation  of  Sismondi,  whether 
it  be  good  or  bad,  and  I  pray  you  to  send  it  ;  and  thank  you  very 
much  for  the  purchases  you  have  made  out  of  the  Marquis  of  Sta. 
Cruz'  library,  which  I  am  sure  will  all  be  welcome.  Please  to  let 
me  know  when  you  have  taken  up  the  remainder  of  the  money  in 
Mr.  Irving's  hands,  and  I  will  send  more.  From  Southey's  sale  I 
obtained  about  thirty  volumes,  I  understand  ;  but,  though  I  believe 
I  have  received  from  it  all  the  Spanish  books  of  any  real  value  that  I 
ordered,  I  did  not  get  the  whole  of  my  order,  because  Rich  was  afraid 
he  should  bid  too  high,  though  he  spent  only  half  the  sum  I  sent 
him,  with  directions  to  return  none  of  it,  except  in  the  shape  of 
Southey's  books 

I  will  send  you,  as  soon  as  I  can  have  it  made  out  after  my  return 
home,  a  list  of  my  Spanish  books  ;  and  shall  always  be  glad  to  have 
you  make  additions  to  it. 

The  Calderons  are  in  Boston,  as  I  hear  from  our  friend  Prescott, 
quite  well  and  very  happy.  "We  are  very  glad  to  have  them  back 
again,  and  the  government  here  is  very  glad  to  have  Calderon  come 
as  Minister  to  it  once  more.  His  relations  were  always  of  the  kind 
that  are  useful,  alike  to  the  country  that  sends  the  mission  and  the 
country  that  receives  it. 

I  am  sorry  to  hear  that  the  Calderons  bring  poor  accounts  of  Mr. 
Irving's  health.  I  trust  he  is  better.  Pray  give  my  affectionate  re- 
gards to  him,  and  when  you  write  tell  me  how  he  is. 

I  am  here  for  some  days  with  all  my  family,  enjoying  anew  the 
magnificent  spectacle  of  these  cataracts,  —  a  spectacle  quite  as  remark- 
able for  its  picturesqueness  and  beauty,  as  it  is  for  its  power  and 
grandeur.  Some  day  I  hope  you  ^^*ill  come  here  and  enjoy  it.  You 
will  find  more  friends  in  this  country  than  you  know  of,  and  we  will 
all  try  to  make  your  time  pass  pleasantly,  if  you  will  make  us  a  visit. 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

G.  TiCKNOR. 

I  wrote  to  you  last  on  the  25th  of  April,  and  one  of  the  books  I 
then  asked  you  to  procure  for  me  was  the  "  Carcel  de  Amor,  de  Diego 
de  San  Pedro."  I  do  not  now  need  it,  for  it  is  among  the  books  I 
bought  at  Southey's  sale. 


^.53.]  PURCHASE  OF  SPANISH  BOOKS.  249 

To  Don  P.  de  Gayangos. 

Boston,  August  24,  1844. 

My  dear  Mr.  Gayangos,  —  I  wrote  to  you  on  the  24tli  July,  from 
Niagara  Falls,  since  which  I  have  returned  to  Boston  with  my  family, 
and  have  caused  the  catalogue  of  my  Spanish  books  to  be  made  out, 
that  goes  with  this.  It  is,  I  believe,  tolerably  complete.  At  any 
rate,  I  shall  be  very  glad  to  receive  from  you  any  books  not  on  it 
that  you  think  would  be  useful  to  me  in  writing  a  history  of  Spanish 
literature.  As,  however,  Prescott's  library,  and  some  public  libraries 
here,  contain  all  the  merely  historical  books  I  can  need,  I  suppose 
you  will  confine  your  purchases  to  lihros  de  poesia  and  libros  de 
entretenimiento.  But  I  pray  you  in  this,  also,  to  exercise  your  dis- 
cretion freely.     When  you  need  more  funds,  please  to  let  me  know  it. 

Of  course,  during  my  residence  in  Spain,  many  years  ago,  and  my 
visits  since  to  the  principal  libraries  of  Europe,  I  have  seen  and  used 
many  curious  Spanish  books  which  I  have  not  bought,  but  from 
which  I  have  made  extracts  and  abstracts  to  serve  my  purposes.  The 
more  of  these  you  may  pick  up  for  me  the  better  I  shall  be  pleased. 

His  eagerness  to  possess  all  the  instruments  for  the  w^ork  in 
which  he  was  engaged  naturally  grew  wdth  rapid  strides,  and 
although  the  love  for  collecting  never  became  simply  a  biblio- 
maniac's passion,  but  was  always  ruled  by  the  literary  element 
from  which  it  sprang,  yet  it  was  a  fervent  enthusiasm,  and  the 
accessions  to  his  Spanish  library  between  1846  and  1852  were 
greater  than  in  any  other  years.  He  says  to  Perthes,  Besser,  and 
Mauke,*  February  24,  1846,  wdien  sending  them  a  catalogue 
marked  for  purchases  :  "I  am  willing  to  pay  high  prices  for 
them,  —  not  des  j^r^iP  fous,  as  the  French  say,  —  but  I  am 
willing  to  pay  high  prices  decidedly,  rather  than  lose  them  " ;  and 
to  Mr.  0.  Eich,  in  June  of  the  same  year :  "I  wish  to  give  you 
carie  blanche,  and  feel  sure  that  with  my  letter  of  January  27, 
and  this  list  of  my  books,  you  cannot  mistake  my  wants ;  wdiich, 
you  know,  have  always  been  confined  to  Spanish  belles-lettres, 
and  whatever  is  necessary  to  understand  the  history  of  Spanish 
elegant  literature.  From  time  to  time  I  pray  ypu  to  send  Mr. 
Gayangos  a  note  of  your  23urchases,  as  he  has  a  similar  carte 
hlanche  from  me,  and  I  will  desire  him  to  do  the  same  with  you." 


•n 


^ 


_J 


11 


*  Of  Hamburg. 


250  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1846. 


To  Dr.  Julius,  Hamburg. 

Boston,  January  25,  18-46. 

My  dear  Dr.  Julius,  —  In  the  autumn,  when  I  returned  to  Bos- 
ton from  my  summer's  rustication,  I  found  your  kind  letter  of  July 
12.  That  of  July  21  followed  soon  after,  and  two  days  ago  came  your 
note  of  August  17,  with  the  "  Dietrichstein  Programme."  .... 

Schack's  "  Geschichte"  was  particularly  welcome  ;  it  is  an  important 
book,  and  I  am  very  anxious  to  receive  the  rest  of  it.  Huber's  Pro- 
gramme is  excellent,  as  is  everything  of  his  on  Spanish  literature  that 
I  know  about,  viz.  his  "  Skizzen,"  his  "  Cid's  Leben,"  his  "  Cronica 
del  Cid,"  and  his  "  Lesebuch,"  all  of  which  I  have  had  from  the  dates 
of  their  publication.  "What  else  has  he  printed  ?  If  there  be  any- 
thing on  Spanish  literature,  order  Perthes  and  Besser  to  send  it. 
Particularly  I  pray  you  to  thank  him  for  the  copy  of  the  Programme. 
WoLf,  I  hope,  wiU  reconsider  his  determination  to  print  only  a  part 
of  the  "Eosa  Espinola,"  1573,  with  the  "  Cancionero."  Everything 
of  Timoneda's  is  worth  reprinting.  Thank  him,  when  you  write  to 
him,  for  the  Programme,  and  beg  him  to  let  us  have  the  whole  of  the 
unicum  volume  of  the  Imperial  Library. 

It  was  too  late  in  the  season  to  send  you  the  Keports,  Kegistrations, 
and  Asylum  Journal,  that  you  want.*  They  will  go  by  the  first 
spring  vessel,  and  that  is  not  far  off.  The  account  of  the  Boston  char- 
ities, in  the  "  North  American  Review,"  after  whose  author  you  in- 
quire, was  written  by  my  brother-in-law,  Mr.  S.  A,  Eliot,  formerly 
Mayor  of  the  city. 

And  now  I  am  about  to  trouble  you  with  a  matter  of  some  conse- 
quence to  me,  but  one  which  I  hope  wdll  not  ask  much  of  your 
thoughts  or  time.  My  collection  of  old  Spanish  books  is  doubled  since 
you  were  here,  and  is  now  so  large  that  I  am  anxious  to  make  it  com- 
plete as  I  can.  "V\Tiat  can  I  do  for  it  in  Germany  ?  The  only  re- 
source there,  that  I  can  think  of,  is  the  small  bookcase  that  used  to 
stand  near  the  window  in  the  venerable  and  admirable  Tieck's  par- 
lor, where  I  have  spent  so  many  happy  hours.  Does  he  still  pre- 
serve that  little  collection,  and  if  he  does  preserve  it,  do  you  think  he 
could  be  induced  to  part  with  it  to  one  who,  as  you  know,  would 
value  it  from  having  been  his,  as  much  as  would  anybody  in  the 
world  1    Will  you  do  me  the  favor,  in  some  way  or  other  that  would 

*  Dr.  Julius  (see  ante,  p.  142,  and  note)  had  given  special  attention  to 
prison  discipline.  He  was  one  of  the  German  translators  of  the  "  History  of 
Spanish  Literature." 


M.  54.]  LETTER  FROM  MR.   PRESCOTT.  251 


be  most  agreeable  to  liim,  to  approach  him  on  this  subject,  and  see  if 
anything  can  be  done  in  my  behalf  ?  I  cannot  but  think  that  it  would 
be  worthy  of  him  to  permit  a  part  of  his  library  to  be  planted  on  this 
"Western  continent,  where,  at  some  time  or  other,  it  will  bear  fruit, 
and  where  it  will  never  cease  to  be  remembered  that  it  was  once  the 
property  of  the  first  man  of  his  time  in  Germany.  If  it  comes  into 
my  hands  it  will,  I  think,  be  kept  together,  and  never  leave  the  "West- 
ern world 

I  Avork  away  constantly  at  my  "History  of  Spanish  Literature," 
after  which  you  kindly  inquire.  It  is  now  approaching  1700,  after 
which  there  is  not  much,  as  you  well  know 

Your  friends  here  are  all  w^ell,  except  Mr.  Pickering,  whose  strength 
is  much  broken  down  by  complaints  in  the  organs  of  digestion.  Pres- 
cott  gets  on  well  with  his  "Conquest  of  Peru,"  and  will  then  take  up 
Philip  11.  He  desires  to  be  kindly  remembered  to  you,  and  so  does 
Mr.  Pickering,  whom  I  saw  yesterday,  and  so  would  your  other 
friends  if  they  knew  me  to  be  writing,  for  we  all  remember  you  with 
a  very  sincere  and  lively  interest. 

Yours  always  faithfully, 

Geo.  Tickxor. 

Do  you  know  of  old  Spanish  books  anywhere  to  be  obtained  in  Ger- 
many or  elsewhere  ?  .  .  .  . 

Mr.  Prescott  was,  naturally,  the  confidant  of  his  friend  during 
the  whole  progress  of  the  work,  from  its  inception  to  its  publi- 
cation ;  and  when  the  manuscrijDt  of  it  was  complete,  it  was  sub- 
mitted to  his  examination  and  correction,  as  his  histories  had 
been  placed  in  Mr.  Ticknor's  hands  for  a  similar  revision.  He 
was  at  this  time  hesitating  over  his  plans  for  writing  the  "History 
of  Philip  II.,"  doubting  whether  his  infirmities  would  permit  him 
to  undertake  it,  and  he  devoted  some  weeks  of  this  period  of 
comp)arative  idleness  to  the  task  of  friendship,  described  by  Mr. 
Ticknor  as  "an  act  of  kindness  for  wdiich  I  shall  always  feel 
grateful,  and  the  record  of  which  I  preserve  Avith  care,  as  a  proof 
how  faithful  he  was,  and  how  frank."*  Eeturning  the  manu- 
script with  nineteen  quarto  pages  of  memoranda,  in 'the  hand- 
writing of  his  amanuensis,  Mr.  Prescott  also  sent  a  note  of  eight 

*  Life  of  Prescott,  4to  ed.  p.  284. 


252  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKXOR.  [1848. 

close-written  pages,  dated  and  signed  by  himself,  of  which  the 
follomng  is  a  part :  — 

Beacon  Street,  May  19, 1848. 

My  dear  George,  —  I  return  you  the  manuscript  which  I  have 
read,  or  rather  heard  attentively,  text  and  notes,  and  I  only  regret 
that  I  could  not  have  gone  over  them  with  my  eyes,  instead  of  my 
ears,  as  I  could  have  done  them  more  justice.  I  need  not  say  that  I 
have  received  a  constant  gratitication  from  the  perusal,  for  the  subject 
is  one_pf  great  interest  to  me.  But  I  have  no  hesitation  in  saying 
that  >  the  work  is  done  in  a  maimer,  both  as  respects  its  scientific  re- 
sults and  its  execution  as  a  work  of  art,  that  must  secure  it  an  impor- 
^  tant  and  permanent  place  in  European  literature.  Not  only  the  for- 
eign, but  the  Spanish  student  must  turn  to  its  pages  for  the  best,  the 
only  complete  record  of  the  national  mind,  as  developed  in  the  vari- 
ous walks  of  elegant  letters.  The  foreign  reader  will  have  ample 
evidence  of  the  unfounded  nature  of  the  satire  "that  the  Spaniards 
have  but  one  good  book,  the  object  of  which  is  to  laugh  at  all  the 
rest."  Even  those  superficially  acquainted,  as  I  am,  with  the  Castil- 
ian  literature,  must  be  astonished  to  see  how  prolific  the  Spaniards 
have  been  in  all  kinds  of  composition  known  in  civilized  Europe,  and 
in  some  kinds  exclusively  their  owm.  The  few  more  learned  critics, 
in  the  Peninsula  and  out  of  it,  will  find  you  have  boldly  entered  the 
darkest  corners  of  their  literature,  and  dragged  into  light  much  that 
has  hitherto  been  unknown,  or  but  very  imperfectly  apprehended  ; 
while  there  is  not  a  vexed  question  in  the  whole  circle  of  the  national 
literature  which  you  have  shrunk  from  discussing,  and,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, deciding. 

The  plan  of  the  book  seems  to  me  very  judicious.  By  distributing 
the  subject  into  the  great  periods  determined  by  its  prevalent  char- 
acteristics at  the  time,  you  make  a  distinct  impression  on  the  mind 
of  the  reader,  and  connect  the  intellectual  movement  of  the  nation 
with  the  political  and  moral  changes  that  have  exercised  an  influence 
over  it.  You  have  clearly  developed  the  dominant  national  spirit, 
which  is  the  peculiar  and  fascinating  feature  of  the  Castilian  ;  and 
you  have  shown  how  completely  this  literature  vindicates  a  place  for 
itself  apart  from  all  other  literatures  of  Christendom.  For  it  was  the 
product  of  influences  to  which  they  have  never  been  subjected. 

The  most  interesting  parts  of  the  work  to  the  general  reader  will, 
I  suppose,  be  those  which  relate  to  topics  of  widest  celebrity,  —  as 
the  Ballads,  for  example,  the  great  dramatic  writers,  Lope,  Calderon, 


M.  57.]  GENERAL  PURPOSE.  253 

etc.,  —  abt)ve   all  Cervantes,  and  scarcely  less  Quevedo The 

portions  least  interesting  to  the  vulgar  reader  will  be  the  details  in 
relation  to  the  more  obscure  writers If  you  are  bent  on  abridg- 
ing the  work,  it  is  in  these  portions  ....  that  you  might  exercise 
your  shears 

I  believe  every  scholar  will  concede  to  you  the  merits  of  having 
had  a  most  extraordinary  body  of  materials  at  your  command, — 
where  such  materials  are  rare,  —  of  having  studied  them  with  dili- 
gence, and,  finally,  of  having  analyzed  and  discussed  them  in  a  man- 
ner perfectly  original.  You  have  leaned,  in  the  last  resort,  on  your 
own  convictions,  derived  from  your  own  examinations.  This  will 
give  you  high  authority,  even  wdth  those  who  differ  from  you   in 

some  of  your  opinions [Then  follow  some  remarks  on  details 

of  style  ending  thus  :  — ] 

I  have  thought  that  you  sometimes  leave  too  little  to  the  reader's 
imagination,  by  filling  up  the  minute  shades,  instead  of  trusting  for 
effect  to  the  more  prominent  traits.  If  you  don't  understand  me,  I 
can  better  explain  myself  in  conversation. 

These  are  small  peculiarities,  which  some  might  think  not  worth 
noticing  at  all.  But  style  is  a  subtle  thing,  and  as  it  is  the  medium 
by  w^hich  the  reader  is  to  see  into  the  writer's  thoughts,  it  cannot  be 

too  carefully  studied 

Always  faithfully  yours, 

William  H.  Prescott. 

In  a  part  of  Mr.  Prescott's  letter  there  is  a  reference  to  one 
element  in  Mr.  Ticknor's  plan  wliicli  guided  him  in  the  composi- 
tion of  his  whole  work.  It  is  thus  expressed  in  notes  to  two 
friends,  which  accompanied  presentation  copies  of  the  book  wdien 
they  were  distributed.     To  Sir  Charles  Lyell  he  says  :  — 

You  know  our  reading  public  in  the  United  States,  how  large  it  is, 
as  well  as  how  craving  and  increasing  ;  so  that  you  will  be  less  sur- 
prised than  others,  that  I  have  prepared  my  book  as  much  for  general  ~1 
readers  as  for  scholars.  Perhaps,  however,  it  will  surprise  you,  too. 
But  I  have  done  it,  and  must  abide  the  consequences.  Indeed,  for  a 
great  many  years  I  have  been  persuaded  that  literary  history  ought 
not  to  be  confined,  as  it  has  been  from  the  way  in  which  it  has  been 
written,  to  persons  of  tasteful  scholarship,  but  should  be  made,  like 
civil  history,  to  give  a  knowledge  of  the  character  of  the  people  to 
which  it  relates.     I  have  endeavored,  therefore,  so  to  write  my  ac- 


254  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1849. 

count  of  Spanish  literature  as  to  make  the  literature  itself  the  expo- 
nent of  the  peculiar  culture  and  civilization  of  the  Spanish  people.  4 
Whether  I  have  succeeded  or  no  remains  to  be  seen.  But  if  I  have, 
my  book,  I  think,  will  be  read  by  my  countrjnnen,  whose  advance 
in  a  taste  for  reading  on  grave  and  thoughtful  subjects  increases  so 
perceptibly  that  there  is  a  plain  difference  since  you  were  here. 

To    Mr.  George  T.  Curtis  he  says  the  same  thing  in  other 
words  :  — 

"  As  you  read,  please  to  bear  in  mind  that  my  book  is  an  attempt  ' 

to  make  literary  history  useful,  as  general  reading,  to  a  people  like 
the  American,  by  connecting  it  with  the  history  of  civilization  and 
manners  in  the  country  to  which  it  relates.  "^Tiether  I  have  sue-  — ' 
ceeded  is  another  question  ;  but  you  will  not  judge  me  as  I  wish  to 
be  judged,  unless  you  take  this  for  what  the  Germans  call  your 
"  stand-punct." 

A  history  of  literature  necessarily  falls  far  short,  in  animation 
and  in  human  interest,  of  a  history  of  events,  and  it  must  con- 
sist, in  great  part,  of  a  catalogue  —  more  or  less  thematique,  but 
essentially  a  chronological  list  —  of  books,  accompanied  by  state- 
ments of  dates  and  skeletons  of  contents.  Mr.  Ticknor,  however, 
in  pursuing  his  object  of  giving  a  living  interest  to  his  work,  seized 
every  opportunity  for  a  sketch  of  national  character  and  experience, 
or  of  individual  lives,  into  which  he  infused  variety  and  vivacity, 
as  well  as  philosophic  observation ;  and  he  enlivened  his  pages 
by  translations,  and  by  intelligible  and  attractive  criticism. 

The  result  is,  that  while  it  is  a  work  of  which  one  of  the 
English  writers  who  noticed  it  *  said,  when  it  appeared,  he  be- 
lieved there  were  not  six  men  in  Europe  able  to  review  it,  and 
which,  by  universal  consent,  is  a  thorough  and  scholarly  history, 
not  likely  to  be  superseded  for  the  period  it  covers,  it  has  actu- 
ally proved  so  attractive  to  general  readers,  that  several  thousand 
copies  have  been  sold  in  the  United  States,  and  it  has  been 
translated  into  three  of  the  great  languages  of  Europe. f  Among 
the  reviews  and  notices  of  the  book,  which  appeared  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic  immediately  after  its  publication,  we  find,  there- 

*  Shirley  Brooks,  in  the  "  Morning  Chronicle." 
t  Spanish,  German  and  French. 


^.  58.]  VARIOUS  NOTICES.  255 

fore,  Mr.  Prescott*  remarking  on  the  jjains  his  friend  has  taken 
"  to  unfold  the  pecuHarities  of  the  Castihan  character,  and  how, 
with  a  spirit  of  sound  philosophy,  he  raises  his  work  above  the 
ordinary  province  of  literary  criticism  "  ;  while  Mr.  Brunet  refers 
to  the  "  renseignements  bibliographiques  qu'il  offre  en  grande 
quantite,  et  qui  fournissent  les  materiaux  de  nombreuses  et  im- 
portantes  additions,  aux  recherches  de  Brunet,  d'Ebert,  et  autres 
savants,  verses  dans  la  connaissance  des  livres."t  ]Mr.  Eichard 
Ford  i  gives  him  "  infinite  credit "  for  the  great  number  of  rare 
and  curious  books  which  he  has  pointed  out,  for  his  careful 
tracing  of  their  editions,  and  the  exact  indications  of  chapter  and 
verse,  on  his  margin,  and,  at  the  same  time,  adds  some  words 
about  Mr.  Ticknor's  "  gentlemanlike  and  elegant  remarks,  couched 
in  a  calm  tone,  and  expressed  in  a  clear  and  unaffected  style," 
and  asserts  that  he  has  produced  a  record  which  may  be  read 
with  general  satisfaction,  and  Avill  be  lastingly  valued  for  refer- 
ence. Mr.  Buckle  also,  in  a  private  letter,  says  :  "In  Mr.  Tick- 
nor's singularly  valuable  '  History  of  Spanish  Literature  '  there 
is  more  real  information  than  can  be  found  in  any  of  the  Spanish 
histories  which  I  have  had  occasion  to  read."§ 

The  first  edition  of  the  work  appeared  from  the  press  of  the 
Messrs.  Harper,  JS'ew  York,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1849, 
while  Mr.  John  Murray,  at  the  same  time,  published  a  small 
edition  in  London.  A  Spanish  translation  was  already  begun, 
from  advanced  sheets,  by  Don  P.  de  Gayangos  and  Don  Enrique 
de  Yedia,  but  the  last  volume  of  this  did  not  appear  until  several 
3^ears  later.  Meantime,  reviews  and  notices  appeared  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic,  some  of  which  contained  inconsiderable 

*  In  the  "  North  American  Eeview."  This  was  the  last  article  Mr.  Prescott 
ever  wrote  for  a  periodical.     See  '•  Life  of  Prescott." 

t  From  the  "  Bulletin  Beige,"  article  signed  G.  Brunet.  "  The  bibliographi- 
cal information  it  contains  in  great  quantities,  and  which  furnishes  materials  for 
numerous  and  important  additions  to  the  researches  of  Brunet,  Ebert,  and  other 
experts,  versed  in  the  history  of  books." 

J  Author  of  the  "  Handbook  of  Spain."  He  wrote  an  artic'le  on  Mr.  Tick- 
nor's work  in  the  "London  Quarterly,"  and  a  notice  of  it  also  for  the  "  London 
Times." 

§  The  letter  appears  in  the  ''  Life  of  Theodore  Parker,"  to  whom  it  was  ad- 
dressed. 


256  LIFE  OF   GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1849. 

objections  to  matters  of  style,  or  to  special  opinions,  omissions, 
and  statements ;  but  all  the  articles  which  carried  weight  with 
them  agreed  in  praise  and  respect.* 

Private  letters  also  flowed  in,  of  course,  and  some  of  these  are 
of  a  character  suitable  to  be  introduced  here.t 

From  J.  Lothrop  Motley  to  G.  Ticknor. 

Chestnut  Street,  Boston,  December  29, 1849. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  At  the  risk  of  appearing  somewhat  impolite,  I 
have  delayed  expressing  my  thanks  to  you  for  your  kindness  in  send- 
ing me  a  copy  of  your  "  History  of  Spanish  Literature,"  until  I  had 
read  the  whole  work.  This  I  have  now  done  very  carefully,  and 
j)arts  of  it  several  times,  and  I  am  happy  to  express  to  you  my  sincere 
congratulations  at  the  eminent  success  which  you  have  attained. 
Yom"  book  is  an  honor  to  yourself  and  to  American  literature. 

I  felt  sure,  before  reading  it,  that  it  would  be  thorough,  accurate, 
learned,  and  that  the  subject  would  be  entirely  exhausted  by  your 
labors  ;  but  as  histories  of  literature,  with  a  few  exceptions,  have  gen- 
erally been  rather  arid  and  lifeless  productions,  occupying  rather  a 
place  upon  the  library  shelf  as  books  of  reference  than  upon  the  table 
as  sources  of  entertainment  and  instruction  at  the  same  time,  I  must 
confess  that  I  was  not  prepared  for  three  volumes  of  so  exceedingly 
interesting  and  picturesque  a  character  as  these  which  you  have  given 
to  the  world. 

In  this  result,  I  think  you  may  take  the  most  credit  to  yourself  for 

*  The  more  important  notices  of  Mr.  Ticknor's  work,  at  its  first  appearance, 
were  the  following  :  "  London  Quarterly  "  (by  Richard  Ford)  ;  "  North  Ameri- 
can," January,  1850  (by  W.  H.  Prescott) ;  "  British  Quarterly,"  February,  1850  ; 
"London  Athenteum,"  March,  1850;  "Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,"  1850  (by 
Rossieuw  de  St.  Hilaire)  ;  "  El  Heraldo,"  Madrid,  March,  1850  (by  Domingo  del 
Monte) ;  "  London  Morning  Chronicle,"  May,  1850  (by  Shirley  Brooks,  who 
wrote  to  Mr.  Ticknor  to  inform  him  of  the  authorship);  "Christian  Exam- 
iner," Boston,  April,  1850  (by  G.  S.  Hillard)  ;  "  Methodist  Quarterly,"  New 
York  (by  C.  C.  Felton)  ;  "L'Opinion  Publique,"  Paris,  which  had  five  articles 
in  1851  (by  Count  Adolphe  de  Circourt) ;  "  London  Spectator,"  "Examiner," 
"Literary  Gazette,"  and  "  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  1850  ;  "Journal  des  De- 
bats,"  1852  (by  Philarete  Chasles,  who  also  paid  a  tribute  to  the  work  in  his 
"  Voyages  d'un  Critique  en  Espagne,"  1868) ;  "Blatter  fiir  Literarische  Unter- 
haltung,"  1853  (by  Ferdinand  Wolf). 

t  A  delightful  letter  from  Washington  Irving  has  already  been  published  in 
his  Memoirs,  which  deprives  us  of  the  pleasure  of  producing  it  here. 


JE.  58.]  LETTER  FROM  MR.   MOTLEY.  257 

the  artistic  inainier  witk  wliicli  you  have  handled  your  materials.  The 
subject  is,  to  be  sure,  — as  it  now  appears  after  your  Look  is  finished,  — 
a  brilliant  and  romantic  one  ;  but  I  have  read  enough  of  literary  his- 
tories to  know  that  they  are  too  apt  to  furnish  a  kind  of  Barmecide's 
feast,  in  which  the  reader  has  to  play  the  part  of  Shacabac,  and  be- 
lieve in  the  excellence  of  the  lamb,  stuffed  with  j)istachio  nuts,  the 
flavor  of  the  wines,  and  the  perfume  of  the  roses,  upon  the  assertion 
of  the  entertainer,  and  without  assistance  from  his  own  j)erceptions. 
This  is  not  the  case  with  your  history.  While  reading  it,  one  feels 
and  recognizes  the  peculiar  (qualities  of  Spanish  poetry  and  romance, 
which  are  so  singularly  in  union  Avith  the  chivalrous  and  romantic 
nation  which  produced  them.  You  have  given  extracts  enough  from 
each  prominent  work  to  allow  the  reader  to  feel  its  character,  and  to 
produce  upon  his  mind  the  agreeable  illusion  that  he  himself  knows 
something  of  the  literature  to  which  you  introduce  him.  You  ana- 
lyze enough  to  instruct,  without  wearying  the  reader  with  too  elabo- 
rate details. 

This  I  take  to  be  the  great  art  in  composing  literary  history.  The 
reader  should  be  able  to  take,  and  to  remember,  a  general  view  of  the 
whole,  and  while  looking  down  the  long  vista  of  the  gallery,  he  should 
be  allowed  to  pause  at  each  remarkable  picture  long  enough  to  study 
and  comprehend  its  beauties  and  its  individual  character 

I  cannot  doubt  that  the  work  will  always  be  the  standard  work 
upon  the  subject,  and  that  it  will  turn  the  attention  of  many  to  a  lit- 
erature which  has  of  late  years  been,  I  should  think,  comparatively 
neglected 

Spanish  literature  is  not  only  an  important  subject  in  itself,  but  it 
furnishes  a  complete  and  separate  episode  in  the  histor}^  of  the  prog- 
ress and  development  of  the  European  mind.  Nowhere  else  have 
poets  exhibited  themselves  in  such  picturesque  and  startling  attitude 
and  costume.  The  warrior,  monk,  troubadour,  and  statesman,  all  in 
one,  combining  the  priest's  bigotry  and  the  poet's  fire  with  the 
"  courtier's,  soldier's,  scholar's,  eye,  tongue,  sword,"  exist  only  in  that 
romantic  literature  of  which  you  have  -VNTitten  the  history  so  well. 

One  can  hardly  understand  the  history  of  Europe  without  knoAving 
not  only  the  history,  but  the  literary  history,  of  Spain  ;  and  after  the 
brilliant  illustrations  of  both,  furnished  by  yourself  and  Mr.  Prescott, 
no  one  will  have  an  excuse  for  iscnorance. 

Begging  you  to  excuse  this  slight  expression  of  the  merits  of  your 
work,  I  remain  Very  sincerely  yours, 

J.  L.  Motley. 


258  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1850. 

From  Henry  Hallam,  Esq. 

Wilton  Ceescent,  London,  January  10,  1850. 

My  dear  Mr.  Ticknor,  —  The  American  mail  went  so  soon  after 
my  receipt  of  your  very  obliging  present  of  your  three  volumes,  that 
I  was  not  able  to  thank  you  at  that  time.  The  delay,  however,  has 
given  me  time  to  read  them  through,  and  I  can  congratulate  you  on 
having  brought  your  long  labors  to  a  close  with  so  much  honor  to 
yourself.  The  book  has  evidently  taken  a  position  in  which  it  both 
supersedes,  for  its  chief  purpose,  all  others,  and  will  never  be  itself  '^ 
superseded,  certainly  not  out  of  Spain  ;  and,  unless  Spain  become 
^very  different  from  what  it  is,  not  Avithin  its  confines.  Your  reach  of 
knowledge  is  really  marvellous  in  a  foreigner  ;  and  I  particularly  ad- 
mire the  candor  and  good  sense  with  which  you  have  escaped  the 
ordinary  fault  of  exaggerating  the  writers  whom  you  have  occasion  to 
bring  before  the  public,  while  you  have  done  ample  justice  to  their 
real  deserts.  Your  style  is  clear,  firm,  and  well-sustained.  Perhaps 
you  will  excuse  a  very  trifling  criticism  ;  a  few  words  seem  to  recur 
too  often,  such  as  lady-love,  which  I  hold  hardly  fit  for  prose,  and 
genial,  which  is  better,  and  not  objectionable,  except  that  I  thmk  you 
have  it  too  often. 

I  rejoice  —  not  only  on  your  account  —  that  your  work  has  every 
prospect  of  a  large  sale  in  America.  It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the 
country  that  a  subject  so  merely  literary,  and  not  relating  to  transient 
literature,  has  attracted  a  number  of  purchasers  —  at  least  according 
to  the  calculation  of  your  publisher  —  very  far  beyond  what  any 
book,  except  one  of  a  popular  character,  could  reach  at  once  in  Eng- 
land. This  shows  that  America  is  fast  taking  a  high  position  as  a 
literary  country  ;  the  next  half-century  will  be  abundantly  produc- 
tive of  good  authors  in  your  Union.  And  it  is  yet  to  be  observed 
that  there  is  not,  nor  probably  will  be,  a  distinct  American  school. 
The  language  is  absolutely  the  same,  all  slight  peculiarities  being  now 
effaced  ;  and  there  seems  nothing  in  the  turn  of  sentiment  or  taste 
which  a  reader  can  recognize  as  not  English.  This  is  not  only  re- 
markable in  such  works  as  yours  and  Mr.  Prescott's,  but  even,  as  it 
strikes  me,  in  the  lighter  literature,  as  far  as  I  see  it,  of  poetry  or 
belles-lettres 

You  will,  I  hope,  be  pleased  to  learn  that  Lord  Mahon  has  pro- 
posed your  name  as  an  Honorary  Fellow  of  the  Society  of  Antiqua- 
ries.   You  will  be  united  in  this  with  Everett,  Prescott,  and  Bancroft.* 

*  Lord  Mahon,  as  President  of  the  Society,  said  at  its  annual  meeting,  April 


M.  59.]  LETTER  FROM  MR.   HALL  AM.  259 

Lord  Mahon  did  this  without  the  least  suggestion  of  mine,  from  being 
pleased  with  your  book,  but  I  was,  of  course,  glad  to  add  my  name  to 
the  recommendation.     You  will  receive  the  diploma  in  time. 

I  was  much  interested  by  your  letter  of  September  25,  which  I 
took  the  liberty  of  showing  to  Dr.  Holland  and  Lord  Lansdowne. 
....  I  hope  that  peace  may  continue  all  over  the  world,  and  indeed 
there  seems  no  great  cause  for  alarm  at  present.  Without  the  non- 
sense of  a  Peace  Society,  a  change  is  coming  over  the  spirits  of  men, 
and  it  is  more  and  more  felt  that  war  is  not  to  be  undertaken  for 

frivolous  punctilios  or  unimportant  interests 

Believe  me,  my  dear  sir, 

Very  truly  yours, 

Henry  Hallam. 

A  few  months  later  Mr.  Ticknor  writes  as  follow^s  :  — 

To  Don  P.  de  Gayangos. 

Boston,  October  14,  1850. 

My  dear  Don  Pascual,  —  I  wTote  you  last  on  the  19th  of  Au- 
gust, since  which  I  have  not  heard  from  you  directly  ;  but  I  know 
that  the  copies  of  my  History  which  I  sent  to  Mr.  Barringer  and  to 
Don  Adolfo  de  Castro,  through  your  kindness,  have  safely  reached 
their  destination.  Don  Adolfo  writes  to  me  very  agreeably  about  my 
book,  but  says  he  shall  answer  what  I  have  said  about  the  Buscapie. 

Young  Prescott  has  returned  lately,  and  brought  me  the  fine  copies 
of  "  Ayllon's  Cid,"  1579,  and  of  the  "  Toledana  Discreta,"  1604,  which 
you  intrusted  to  his  care.  His  father  came  at  the  same  time,  and 
both  of  them  are  quite  well,  and  much  gratified  by  the  kindness  they 
everywhere  received  in  Europe 

I  continue  to  receive  much  better  accounts  of  my  book  from  Eu- 
rope than  I  can  think  it  deserves You  will,  I  suppose,  have 

had  Ford's  review  in  the  "  London  Quarterly  "  for  October,  and  that 
of  Rossieuw  de  St.  Hilaire  in  the  "  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes "  at 

23,  1850  :  "  It  is  also  with  great  pleasure  that  I  find  another  gentleman  from  the 
United  States,  the  author  of  the  excellent  "  History  of  Spanish  Literature," 
augmenting  the  list  of  our  honorary  members.  Five  years  ago  we  had  not  one 
from  that  country.  At  present  we  have  four,  namely,  Mr.  Everett,  Mr,  Ban- 
croft, Mr.  Prescott,  and  Mr.  Ticknor,  —  an  accession  of  talent  and  high  charac- 
ter of  which  any  society  might  justly  be  proud."  After  reading  the  book  Lord 
Mahon  had  opened  a  correspondence  with  Mr.  Ticknor,  whom  he  had  not  pre- 
viously known. 


260  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1850. 

Paris.  Julius  is  going  on  vigorously  with  his  translation  at  Ham- 
burg, assisted,  as  he  writes  me,  by  notes  from  Wolf  of  Vienna  and 
Huber  of  Berlin,  and  expecting  to  publish  at  New  Year.  Tieck 
writes  with  much  kindness  about  it.  Villemain  has  volunteered  to 
me  a  message  of  approbation  and  thanks  ;  and  I  enclose  you  a  letter 
from  Humboldt,  found  in  a  newspaper,  of  which  I  know  nothing 
else,  not  even  to  whom  it  was  addressed  ;  but  which  I  think  you  and 
Don  Domingo  del  Monte  will  read  with  pleasure,  for  the  sake  of  the 
few  words  in  which  he  speaks  of  Prescott  and  myself,  and  for  the 
broad  view  he  gives  —  after  his  grand,  generalizing  fashion  —  of  the 
progress  of  culture  in  the  United  States. 

There  have  been  a  great  many  notices  of  my  History,  I  under- 
stand, in  England  and  this  country,  which  I  have  not  seen ;  but  I 
have  not  heard  of  any  of  them  that  were  unfavorable."^ 

From  Ludwig  Tieck. 

Potsdam,  July  28,  1850. 

Honored  FRiEXDjt  —  What  a  happy  time  it  was  when  we  met  al- 
most every  day  in  Dresden.  I  still  look  back  to  that  time  with  much 
pleasure.  Genuine  friendship,  indeed,  consists  in  this,  that  men 
imderstand  each  other  better  every  day,  and  become  indispensable 
to  one  another  in  sentiments,  expressions,  and  so  forth  ;  this  is  what 
ordinary  society  neither  appreciates  nor  requires.  Notwithstanding 
the  high  esteem  with  which  you  inspired  me,  your  valued  present 
surprised  me  ;  for,  delightful  as  these  welcome  volumes  were,  their 
many-sided  and  profound  learning  astonished  me.  I\Iuch  is  now  do- 
ing for  Spanish  literature,  but  your  learned  work  appears  to  me  the 
first  of  the  day. 

If  I  did  not  immediately  thank  you  from  a  full  heart,  my  malady, 
which  takes  hold  of  me,  and  exhausts  me  to  an  incredible  degree, 
must  be  my  excuse,  and,  on  the  same  ground,  you  will  kindly  accept 
this  dictated  letter. 

Much  as  I  have  read  of  Spanish,  and  though  I  counted  myself 
among  the  connoisseurs  in  the  province  of  poetry,  your  beautiful  book 

*  In  a  letter  from  Mr,  Abbott  Lawrence,  then  our  Minister  to  England,  to 
Mr.  S.  A.  Eliot,  he  says:  "I  was  present  a  few  evenings  since,  when  the 
Qneen  asked  Mr.  Macaulay  what  new  book  he  coiild  recommend  for  her  read- 
ing. He  replied  that  he  would  recommend  Her  Majesty  to  send  for  the  '  His- 
tory of  Spanish  Literature,'  by  an  American,  Mr.  Ticknor  of  Boston." 

t  Translated  from  the  German. 


M.  59.]  LETTER  FROM  LUDWIG  TIECK.  2G1 

has  yet  put  me  to  shame,  for  I  have  gained  an  endless  amount  of  new 
information  from  it.  The  chapters  on  the  Eomances  seemed  to  me 
especially  new  and  instructive,  and  I  rejoice  in  the  prospect  of  re- 
peated readings,  that  I  may  study  and  learn  more.  It  was  new  to 
me,  also,  that  you  had  travelled  in  Spain. 

I  confess  that  I  cannot  feel  much  admiration  for  the  modern  poetry, 
in  comparison  with  the  earlier  poetry  and  literature.  These  modern 
ideas,  this  French  style,  this  degraded  language,  do  not  suit  the  grave 
Spaniard. 

I  could  have  wished  the  chapters  on  the  Drama  more  minute  still, 
and  it  seems  to  me  that  we  Protestants,  by  education,  hahit,  and  daily 
intercourse,  lack  a  power  of  entering  into  the  mythical  religious  poe- 
try. For,  while  Calderon  inclined  to  allegory,  we  find  in  Lope 
religious  mythical  views,  and  poetic  representations  which  have  exer- 
cised an  extraordinary  magic  power  over  me  for  many  years.  Just  so 
Lope's  contemporaries,  such  as  Mira  de  Mesqua  and  others,  are  very 
remarkable  in  representations  of  miracles,  legends,  apparitions.  This 
point  seems  to  me  to  have  been  too  little  regarded  by  all  friends  ;  for 
I  cannot  speak  of  those  caricatures  which,  for  a  time,  tried  to  attract 
attention  by  much  noise  ;  when  even  young  Jews  were  indefatigable 
in  painting  Madonnas  and  Christs. 

Eemember  me  to  your  lady,  and  think  sometimes  of  your  admir- 
ing friend, 

LUDWIG   TiECK. 

Having  thus  met  with  a  solid  and  most  gratifying  success,  the 
"History  of  Spanish  Literature"  maintained  its  place,  and  in 
1863,  when  he  had  accumulated  additional  materials,  and  had 
profited  by  all  the  suggestions  contained  in  the  Spanish  and  Ger- 
man translations  of  his  work,  as  well  as  in  such  reviews  and  pri- 
vate criticisms  as  seemed  to  him  of  value,  Mr.  Ticknor  brought 
out  a  third  edition  of  the  book,  "  corrected  and  enlarged."  The 
Preface  to  this  gives  a  full  account  of  the  means  and  methods  by 
which  he  had  acquired  the  new  matter,  and  of  the  changes  he 
saw  fit  to  make.* 

He  continued,  as  long  as  he  lived,  to  gather  from  every  acces- 
sible source  whatever  could  add  to  the  accuracy  and  the  merit 

*  In  this  Preface  Mr.  Ticknor  states  that  3,500  copies  of  his  work  have  been 
published  in  America  alone.  Since  that  time  1,300  more  have  been  sold  in  the 
United  States. 


262  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1850. 

of  this  his  chief  production.  "  A  copy  of  his  History  was  always 
on  his  table ;  and,  retaining  to  the  last  his  literary  activity,  and 
his  interest  in  his  favorite  studies,  he  constantly  had  it  in  hand, 
for  the  purpose  of  making  such  revisions  as  were  suggested  by 

his  own  researches,  or  those  of  Spanish  scholars  in  Europe 

Any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  compare  the  two  editions 
[the  third  and  fourth]  will  see  how  carefully  and  conscientiously 
Mr.  Ticknor  labored,  to  the  day  of  his  death,  to  secure  complete- 
ness to  the  work  to  which  the  best  portion  of  his  life  was  dedi- 
cated, with  a  singleness  of  devotion  rare  in  these  days  of  desul- 
tory activity  and  rapid  production."  * 

*  Preface  to  the  Fourth  Edition,  by  G.  S.  Hillard.  This  edition,  prepared  for 
the  press  by  Mr.  Hillard,  appeared  a  year  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Ticknor,  who 
left  a  special  request  that  his  friend  might  peif orm  this  office. 


M.  58.]  VISIT  TO  WASHINGTON.  263 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

Visit  to  Washington.  —  Letters  to  Mr.  Milman,  Prince  John,  Sir  E. 
Head,  Sir  C.  Lyell,  F.  Wolf,  D.  Webster,  E.  Everett,  G.  T.  Curtis, 
and  C.  S.  Daveis.  —  New  Books.  —  Passing  Events.  —  Sjpanish  Liter- 
ary Subjects.  —  Slavery.  —  International  Copyright. 

IN  the  spring  of  the  year  1850  ^Ir.  Ticknor  went  to  Wash- 
ington for  the  first  time  since  1828,  taking  his  eldest  daugh- 
ter with  him,  and  the  fortnight  he  passed  there  was  very  ani- 
mated, owing  to  the  presence  in  the  society  of  the  capital  that 
season,  of  a  number  of  persons  with  whom  he  could  not  fail 
to  have  interesting  and  agreeable  intercourse.  Mr.  "Webster 
was  in  Washington  as  Senator;  so  was  IMr.  Clay,  who  occu- 
pied rooms  near  Mr.  Ticknor's  in  the  hotel,  and  frequently  came 
in  as  a  friendly  neighbor ;  Mr.  Calderon  was  Spanish  IVIinister ; 
Mr.  E.  C.  Winthrop  was  member  of  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives from  Boston  ;  and  many  other  friends  and  acquaintances 
were  there,  officially  or  for  pleasure.  Sir  Henry  Bulwer,  as 
English  Minister,  was  a  brilliant  acquisition  to  the  society  of  the 
place ;  the  Chevalier  Hiilsemann,  Austrian  Charge  d' Affaires, 
recollected  seeing  Mr.  Ticknor  once  in  the  riding-school  in  Got- 
tingen,  thirty-five  years  before,  and  remembered  his  appearance 
so  well,  he  said  he  should  have  recognized  him ;  a  son  of  that 
Marquis  de  Sta.  Cruz  who  had  so  often  been  his  host  in  Madrid 
was  a  member  of  the  Spanish  Legation ;  and,  finally,  the  White 
House,  as  presided  over  by  good  General  Taylor  and  his  attrac- 
tive daughter,  Mrs.  Bhss,  was,  socially,  more  agreeable  than 
usual. 

The  constant  dinner-parties  at  which  this  circle  met  were 
uncommonly  bright  with  clever  conversation,  and  the  mornings 
passed  with  Mr.  Webster,  or  in  the  Houses  of  Congress  and  the 
Supreme  Court,  were  interesting.     Unfortunately  Mr.   Ticknor 


264  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1850. 

was  not  well  during  this  visit,  and  unfortunately,  also,  his  let- 
ters, though  filled  with  the  daily  record  of  what  he  did,  contain 
almost  nothing  in  a  form  to  be  appropriate  here. 
On  one  occasion  he  writes  :  — 

As  Judge  "Wayne  says,  "the  demonstration  in  favor  of  "Webster's 
speech  *  is  triumphant."  The  number  of  letters  he  receives  about  it  is 
jjrocligious ;  and  the  flood  still  comes  in,  as  if  none  had  flowed  before. 
He  has  sent  me  a  roll  of  a  few  hundred,  with  which  I  have  been  amus- 
ing myself  this  morning  ;  and  from  their  look,  and  from  what  I  hear, 
he  could  have,  from  any  part  of  the  country,  a  list  of  names  as  signifi- 
cant of  its  public  opinion  as  the  list  from  Boston.  The  great  "West 
goes  for  him  with  a  rush. 

In  another  letter  he  says  :  — 

The  dinner  at  "Webster's  was  very  agreeable,  quite  agreeable ;  though 
having  risen  at  three  in  the  morning  to  prepare  his  great  case  in  the 
Supreme  Court,  then  having  argued  it,  and,  finally,  having  had  a 
little  discussion  in  the  Senate  as  late  as  five  o'clock,  he  grew  tired 
about  nine,  and  showed  a  great  infection  of  sleep.  But  at  the  table 
he  was  in  excellent  condition. 

Again  he  writes  :  — » 

The  first  half  of  the  evening  I  spent  with  Clay,  who  had  with  him 
Foote  and  Clingman ;  and  a  curious  conversation  we  had  about  slav- 
ery, I  assure  you 

At  last,  however,  mentioning  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Prescott  with 
a  party  of  friends,  he  adds,  "  They  will  stay  till  Friday,  so  as  to 
dine  at  the  President's  on  Thursday,  for  which  we  have  invita- 
tions, but  I  would  not  stop  here  next  week  to  dine  with  the 
Three  Holy  Kings  of  Cologne."  t 

This  visit  to  AVashington  is  mentioned  in  the  following  letter 
to  Mr.  Milman  :  — 

*  The  famous  7th  of  March  speech. 

t  The  description,  in  the  "Life  of  Prescott,"  of  the  attentions  showered  upon 
his  friend,  might  be  applied  with  equal  truth  to  the  welcome  Mr.  Ticknor  him- 
self received. 


^.  58.]  NOKTH  AND  SOUTH.  2G5 

To  THE  Eev.  H.  H.  Milman,  London. 

Boston,  April  30,  1850. 

My  dear  Mr.  Milman,  —  I  am  indebted  to  you  for  a  most  kind 
letter  concerning  my  "  History  of  Spanish  Literature."  Such  appro- 
bation as  your  kindness  has  given  is  the  true  and  highest  reward 
an  author  receives  ;  for  though  the  public  may  read,  —  and  in  this 
country  the  reading  public  is  very  large,  —  yet  it  is  the  few  who 
decide 

I  have  lately  spent  a  fortnight  in  Washington.  The  times  there 
are  very  stirring,  the  passions  of  men  much  excited.  But  no  per- 
manent mischief  will  come  from  it.  The  people  of  the  North  have 
neither  been  frightened  nor  made  angry,  and  are  not  likely  to  be. 
....  The  result  will  be,  that  after  much  more  angry  discussion  a 
ground  of  compromise  and  adjustment  will  be  found  which  will 
settle  the  controversy  once  and  forever,  as  we  hope.  This  will  be 
mainly  owing  to  the  conciliatory  tone  taken  by  Mr.  Webster,  which 
has  much  quieted  the  popular  feeling  at  the  North  ;  for  if  he  had 
assumed  the  opposite  tone,  the  whole  North  w^ould  have  gone  with 
him,  and  the  breach  would  have  been  much  widened,  if  not  made 
irreparable 

Meantime  the  country  advances  wdth  gigantic  strides,  and  as  the 
new  States  get  on  and  take  their  permanent  places  in  the  Confederacy, 
they  feel  a  new  power  coming  upon  them,  which  is  destined  to  have  a 
preponderating  authority  to  keep  the  peace  in  all  conflicts  that  may 
hereafter  arise  between  the  North  and  the  South.  I  mean  the  great 
basin  of  the  Upper  Mississippi,  with  its  free  States,  Avhich,  after  the 
census  of  1850,  and  the  representation  W'hich  will  be  organized  upon 
its  basis,  will  have  upon  all  national  questions  a  decisive  power,  and 
never  endure  for  a  moment  a  state  of  things  that  can  tend  to  making 
New  Orleans  a  foreign  port.  This  power  wdll  be  eminently  conserva- 
tive, hostile  to  the  spirit  of  slavery,  and  every  year  will  become  more 
so.  This  makes  the  present  contest  in  Congress  very  important,  and 
will  explain  to  you  much  of  its  fierceness 

I  have  ventured  to  write  to  you  about  our  political  affairs,  be- 
cause they  are  of  so  broad  a  nature  that  they  become  a  part  of  the 
concerns  of  the  whole  human  family,  and  can  be  alien  from  no 
man's  heart  who  feels  what  belongs  to  Christendom'  and  its  inter- 
ests. It  is,  besides,  the  uppermost  subject  here  now.  Mr.  Web- 
ster made  a  bold  and  manly  speech  about  it  in  one  of  our  public 
squares  yesterday  afternoon,  as  he  arrived  at  his  hotel  from  Wash- 

VOL.  II.  12 


266  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1850. 

ington  for  a  few  days,  and  I  have  just  been  talking  with  him  about 
it  *  .... 

Hoping  that  when  your  leisure  permits  we  may  hear  from  you  again, 

Very  sincerely  yours, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Prince  John,  Duke  of  Saxony,  Dresden. 

Boston,  July  22, 1850. 

My  dear  Prince,  —  I  have  desired  to  -write  to  you  for  some  time, 
and  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  a  very  interesting  and  instructive  let- 
ter which  you  sent  me  in  the  spring,  and  a  note  of  May  9,  in  which 
you  speak  with  your  accustomed  kindness  of  my  "  History  of  Spanish 
Literature,"  of  which  I  had  early  ventured  to  send  you  a  copy.  But 
the  state  of  our  public  affairs,  on  which  I  wished  to  say  something, 

seemed  every  week  to  be  likely  to  take  a  decisive  turn I  have 

waited,  however,  in  vain.  The  debates  are  still  going  on,  the  decision 
is  still  somewhat  uncertain,  and  the  disturbed  and  excited  state  of 
public  opinion  and  feeling  is  still  unappeased. 

But  in  the  midst  of  this  angry  discussion  has  come  a  melancholy 
event,  of  which  you  have  already  heard,  —  I  mean  the  very  sudden 
death  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  ;  an  event  which,  perhaps, 
will  not  exercise  a  great  influence  on  the  course  of  public  affairs,  but 
is  worth  particular  notice,  from  the  circumstance  that  what  has  accom- 
panied and  followed  it  throws  a  strong  light  on  the  nature  and  opera- 
tion of  the  free  institutions  of  this  countrv The  shock  was 

very  great ;  and,  in  a  despotism,  the  loss  of  the  head  of  the  govern- 
ment, under  circumstances  of  such  national  embarrassment,  would 
have  undoubtedly,  I  think,  brought  on  a  period  of  confusion.  But 
here,  the  course  of  things  was  not  in  the  least  shaken.     The  next  day 

*  During  this  visit  in  Boston  Mr,  Wehster  one  day  sent  a  note  to  Mr.  Tick- 
nor asking  him  to  come  to  his  hotel  in  the  afternoon,  and  having  detained  him 
in  conversation  till  a  party  of  gentlemen  had  assembled  who  had  united  to  give 
a  semi-public  dinner  in  his  (Mr.  Webster's)  honor,  Mr.  Ticknor  was  induced  to 
sit  do^vn  with  them.  When  the  after-dinner  speaking  began,  one  of  the  guests 
suddenly  called  on  Mr.  Ticknor,  whom,  he  said,  in  all  his  large  experience  of 
public  dinners  he  had  never  before  seen  on  such  an  occasion  ;  and,  without  a 
moment's  chance  for  preparation,  Mr.  Ticknor  responded  with  what  a  person 
present  asserts  was  one  of  the  happiest  and  most  effective  little  speeches  he  had 
ever  heard.  This  was  the  only  time  Mr.  Ticknor  was  ever  entrapped  into  such 
a  performance  ;  a  fact  as  significant  of  his  tastes,  as  the  testimony  to  his  success 
is  significant  of  his  gifts. 


M.  58.]  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  TAYLOR.  2G7 


at  noon,  July  10,  the  Vice-President  was  publicly  sworn  into  oflice, 
with  the  greatest  solemnity,  and  in  the  presence  of  both  Houses  of 
Congress,  but  without  the  least  show  or  bustle,  not  a  soldier  being 
visible  on  the  occasion,  nor  any  form  observed  or  any  word  spoken 
but  the  accustomed  simple  and  awful  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  Con- 
stitution. 

Nor  was  the  effect  on  the  country  different  from  what  it  was  in  the 
Capitol.  Men  were  everywhere  shocked  by  it,  as  a  warning  of  God's 
power,  and  felt  grieved  for  the  loss  of  one  in  whose  faithfuhiess,  mod- 
eration, and  wisdom  even  those  originally  opposed  to  his  election 
had  come  very  generally  to  place  great  confidence.  But  there  was  no 
convulsion,  no  alarm.  Neither  private  nor  public  credit  was  affected 
to  the  amount  of  a  penny,  nor  did  any  man  in  the  country  feel  as  if 
his  personal  happiness  and  security,  or  those  of  his  children,  were  to 
be  any  way  involved  in  this  sudden  death  of  the  political  head  of  the 
nation 

Nor  has  there  been  any  ground  for  alarm.  The  popular  will,  which 
gives  the  main  impulse  to  all  governmental  action  in  free  institu- 
tions like  ours,  will  be  as  efficient  in  carrying  on  the  state  under  Mr. 
Fillmore  as  it  was  under  General  Taylor.  The  j)eople  know  this, 
and  therefore  feel  little  aff'ected  by  the  change.  And  Mr.  Fillmore, 
on  his  part,  knows  that  power  will  be  given  to  him  by  this  popular 
will  only  so  far  as  he  consults  the  real  interests  of  the  whole  country, 
or  what  the  whole  people  —  little  likely  to  be  deceived  on  such 
great  matters  affecting  themselves  —  believe  to  be  their  real  inter- 
ests  

The  affair  of  Cuba,  I  suppose,  made  much  noise  for  a  time  in  Ger- 
many, and  perhaps  the  American  government  was  blamed.  But  it 
did  not  deserve  to  be.  We  have,  as  you  know,  no  secret  police,  nor 
anything  approaching  it  ;  the  numbers  concerned  in  the  piratical  ex- 
pedition "^  were  inconsiderable  ;  and  they  were  embarked  cunningly 
for  Chagres,  —  as  if  they  were  going  to  California,  —  in  a  regular 
packet  from  New  Orleans,  and  then,  ichen  at  sea,  were  transferred  to 
the  steam- vessel  that  carried  them  to  Cuba.  The  government  officers 
and  the  agents  of  the  Spanish  Minister  at  Washington,  who  suspected 
what  was  going  on,  had  been  watching  for  some  time  at  New  Orleans, 
New  York,  and  Philadelphia,  and  made  several  seizures  of  vessels  not 
concerned  in  the  attempt  ;  but  the  true  one  escaped  them.  Those 
who  have  returned  to  the  United  States,  and  others  suspected  of  being 
concerned  with  them,  have  been  arrested,  and  will  be  tried.     It  was  a 

*  Walker's. 


2QS  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1850. 

piratical  affair  altogether.     The  persons  engaged  in  it  were  chiefly 
foreigners,  and  the  money  to  carry  it  on  came  from  Cuba. 

The  death  of  Sir  Eobert  Peel  will  be  felt  in  the  affairs  of  Europe  ; 
in  England  his  great  administrative  talents  will  be  excessively 
missed 

I  have  finished  your  "  Paradiso,"  and  have  been  more  and  more 
struck,  as  I  went  on,  with  the  extraordinarv  mediaeval  learning  with 
which  it  abounds.  No  man  hereafter,  I  think,  can  be  accounted  a 
thorough  scholar  in  Dante  who  has  not  studied  it.  I  give  you  anew 
my  thanks  for  it.  I  hope  you  will  soon  permit  me  to  hear  again  from 
you  on  the  subject  of  European  affairs.  At  this  distance  things  look 
more  quiet  only  ;  hardly  more  hopeful.  But  I  trust  we  are  mis- 
taken. 

I  remain  always  very  faithfully,  my  dear  Prince, 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

George  Ticknor. 


To  THE  Hon.  Edward  Everett. 

Manchester  [Massachusetts],  July  31,  1850. 

My  dear  Everett,  —  I  have  just  read  your  oration  of  the  17th  of 
June.  I  made  an  attempt  in  the  "  Advertiser,"  but  broke  down  from 
the  obvious  misplacing  of  some  paragraphs,  and  I  am  glad  I  failed, 
for  I  have  enjoyed  it  much  more  here  in  this  quietness,  reading  the 
whole  without  getting  up  out  of  my  chair,  and  then  looking  over  cer- 
tain parts  of  it  again  and  again,  till  I  had  full  possession  of  them.  It 
was  a  great  pleasure,  and  I  thank  you  for  it.  Perhaps  some  of  your 
earlier  efforts  were  more  brilliant,  but  for  real  power,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  you  have  never  done  anything  equal  to  it.  Its  philosophical 
views  will  strike  many  persons  in  Europe,  and  will  be  hereafter  re- 
ferred to  as  authority  at  home.  So  much  I  have  thought  I  might 
say  to  you,  but  to  anybody  else  I  should  gladly  talk  on  much  longer. 

We  are  having  a  deliciously  cool  and  pleasant  summer  here,  with  a 
plenty  of  agreeable  occupations  for  the  forenoon,  and  beautiful  drives 
in  the  afternoon.  I  wish  you  would  come  down  and  see  us.  The 
beach  is  as  smooth  as  it  was  when  you  bathed  on  it  last  year  ;  but  I 
would  rather  you  should  come  and  pass  a  night,  for  "  the  evening  and 
the  morning "  make  the  day  here,  as  much  as  they  did  in  the  Crea- 
tion  

Yours  very  sincerely, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


M.  59.]  LETTER  TO  SIR  EDMUND  HEAD.  2G9 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Baht.,  Fredericton,  N.  B  * 

Boston,  November  19,  1850. 

My  dear  Sir  Edmund,  —  I  thank  you,  we  all  thank  you,  for  your 
letter  of  October  30,  with  the  criticisms  on  AUston For  my- 
self, I  thank  you  for  your  offer  of  rare  and  precious  Spanish  books, 
which  I  receive  exactly  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  made  ;  that  is,  I 
accept  the  last  of  the  six  volumes,  and  leave  the  rest  to  somebody  that 
has  better  claims  on  them.  The  book  I  refer  to  is,  "  Historia  de  San 
Juan  de  la  Peiia,  por  su  Abad  Juan  Briz  Martinez,"  Zaragoza,  1620. 
Of  the  five  others,  I  possess  the  "  Diana  "  in  sundry  editions,  includ- 
ing the  first I  accept  thankfully  the   old   Abbot  Martinez, 

because  in  such  books  I  almost  always  find  something  to  my  pur- 
pose  

Sir  Henry  Bulwer  has  been  here  lately,  and  is  just  gone.  He  is  a 
good  deal  delahre,  or,  as  we  say  in  Yankeedom,  " used  up,"  but  is 
shrewd,  vigilant,  sometimes  exhibiting  a  little  subacid,  but  on  the 
whole  very  agreeable.  He  took  kindly  to  the  town,  and  we  met  him 
constantly  in  the  houses  of  our  friends  at  dinner,  to  say  nothing  of 
quantities  of  gossip  that  went  on  in  our  own  library.  Lady  Bulwer 
did  not  come  with  him.  His  relations  with  the  present  Administra- 
tion are  no  doubt  very  satisfactory  to  him,  but  with  his  shattered 
nerves,  I  should  think  a  residence  in  Washington  would  be  anything 
but  agreeable. 

"Webster,  too,  has  been  here,  and  hurried  off  yesterday  to  his  post, 
better  in  health  than  he  was  a  month  ago,  but  almost  sixtj^-nine  years 
old,  and  showing  decidedly  the  approach  of  age.  Still,  he  is  capable 
of  great  things,  because  he  works  so  easily,  and  in  the  forty  years  and 
more  that  I  have  known  him  well,  he  never  seemed  to  me  so  wise 
and  great  as  he  does  now.  If  his  strength  is  continued,  he  alone  will 
carry  us  through  our  present  troubles. 

*  Sir  Edmnnd  Head  was,  at  this  time,  Governor  of  New  Brunswick.  He  and 
Lady  Head  had  paid  a  visit  to  Boston  in  October,  and  he  wrote  thus  to  Mr. 
Ticknor  afterwards.:  "Sir  Charles  Lyell  says  of  Mr.  Prescott,  'Prescott's  visit 
has  been  a  source  of  great  pleasure  to  us,  and,  though  I  can  by  no  means  s}Tn- 
pathize  with  Macaulay's  astonishment  that,  being  what  he  is,  he  should  ever 
go  back  to  Boston,  I  cannot  help  regretting  that  the  Atlantic  should  separate 
him  and  you  from  us.'  Nor  can  /,"  continiies  Sir  Edmund,  "sympathize  with 
Macaulay's  astonishment,  since  I  have  had  the  great  jileasure  of  receiving  your 
kindness  and  enjoying  your  conversation  at  Boston.  Those  fev.'  days  are  days 
on  which  Lady  Head  and  myself  shall  always  look  back  with  sincere  satis- 
faction.    We  only  regret  that  they  were  so  few." 


270  LIFE   OF   GEOKGE  TICKNOR.  [1851. 

....  I  am  curious  to  know  what  you  think  about  the  restoration 
of  the  Papal  titles,  etc.,  in  England.  It  strikes  me  that  all  compro- 
mises like  that  of  Puseyism  must  now  be  given  up  ;  and,  however 
indiscreet  it  may  have  been  in  the  good  Pio  Nono  —  as  foolish 
people  called  him  —  to  throw  down  the  gauntlet,  nothing  remains 
for  your  National  Church  but  to  fight  it  out  with  him  on  the  most 
absolute  grounds  of  Protestantism,  or  to  fall  before  dissent  in  its 
many  forms.  However,  I  am  only  a  looker-on  from  a  great  distance. 
Dominus  providebit.  Protestantism,  in  some  shape  or  other,  must 
prevail. 

Mrs.  Ticknor  is  writing  to  Lady  Head,  ....  but  there  is  no  hann 
in  adding  her  kindest  regards  to  mine  and  the  daughters'  for  both  of 
you.     Duplicates  in  such  cases  are  like  surplusage  in  law,  non  nocent. 

Yours  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  January  7,  1851. 

My  dear  Sir  Edmund,  —  Mrs.  Ticknor  some  days  ago  told  Lady 
Head  that  the  fine  copy  of  good  old  "  Abbot  Martinez "  had  come 
safely  to  hand,  and  I  now  add  my  sincere  thanks  for  it,  as  a  curious 
book,  out  of  which  I  have  already  dug  one  fact  of  some  consequence 
to  me,  which  I  was  never  able  elsewhere  to  settle  as  exactly  as  I 
wanted  to.  I  like  these  old  chronicling  histories,  full  of  monkish 
traditions,  and  often  waste  a  deal  of  time  over  them. 

Lately  I  have  been  looking  again  over  another  sort  of  book,  on  sim- 
ilar matters,  and  —  so  far  as  I  can  judge — one  of  very  accurate  and 
rare  learning  ;  I  mean  Dozy,  "  Recherches  sur  I'Histoire  politique  et 
litteraire  de  I'Espagne,  pendant  le  moyen  age,"  Tom.  I.  The  author, 
I  believe,  is  a  Dutchman,  and  certainly  writes  in  most  detestable 
French  ;  but  his  knowledge  of  the  Arabic  history  of  Spain,  and  his 
access  to  original  materials  for  it,  are  quite  remarkable.  The  way  in 
which  he  shows  up  the  Cid  as  a  savage  marauder,  who  burnt  people 
alive  by  the  dozen  and  committed  all  sorts  of  atrocities,  sometimes 
against  Christians  and  sometimes  against  Moors,  with  a  considerable 
air  of  impartiality,  is  truly  edifying. 

Once  he  hits  upon  a  man  who  had  seen  the  Cid,  and  so  gives  a 
coup-de-grace  to  Masdeu,  if  indeed  that  person  of  clumsy  learning  has 
survived  the  blows  given  him  by  others.  For  all  he  says,  Master 
Dozy  gives  the  original  Arabic,  with  translations,  and  generall}''  relies 


JE.  59.]  FIRST  INTER NATIOXAL  EXHIBITION.  271 


only  on  contemporary  documents,  so  rare  at  the  period  of  Spanish 

history  which  he  has  chiefly  examined  thus  far I  shall  be 

very  curious  to  see  the  continuation  of  his  work,  for  this  first  volume 
—  1849  —  comes  down  only  through  the  Chronicle  and  old  poems  on 
the  Cid,  concerning  which  his  discussions  are  very  acute,  if  not  al- 
ways satisfactory. 

You  keep  the  run  of  our  politics  from  the  "Advertiser,"  .... 
and  in  that  case  you  have  not  missed  reading  Webster's  letter  to 
Hiilsemann,  the  Austrian  Charge,  on  the  subject  of  the  agent  we  sent 
towards  Hungary,  during  their  troubles.  I  refer  to  it,  therefore,  only 
to  say  that  it  is  satisfactory  to  the  ivhole  of  this  country,  without  dis- 
tinction of  party.  .... 

I  had  a  letter  from  Stirling  last  steamer.  He  has  been  in  Russia, 
and  talks  of  coming  here  at  some  indefinite  time.  Lord  Carlisle's 
lecture  about  America  is  very  flattering  to  some  of  us,  and  for  one  I 
feel  grateful  to  him  for  his  notice  of  me,  but  I  think  its  tone  is  not 
statesmanlike However,  it  seems  to  have  given  general  satis- 
faction in  England,  and  I  suppose  the  rest  is  no  concern  of  ours.  Let 
me  hear  from  you  at  your  leisure,  of  which  you  must  have  some  in 


the  long  evenings. 


Yours  faithfullv, 

George  Ticknor. 


To  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  Bart. 

Boston,  June  24,  1851. 

My  dear  Lyell,  —  There  is  no  use  in  trying  to  stir  up  our  peo- 
ple to  make  a  decent  show  of  themselves  at  the  Crystal  Palace  ; 
they  won't  do  it.  As  soon  as  I  received  your  letter  of  May  20,  I 
WTote  an  article  for  the  "Courier,"  which  was  copied  into  other 
papers,  and  our  friend  Hillard  went  to  the  Secretary  of  our  Commis- 
sion about  it.  But  the  answer  was  prompt  all  round  :  "  The  French, 
the  Russians,  and  the  Germans  send  their  goods  to  England  as  a 
means  of  advertising  them  all  over  the  world  ;  we  look  for  no  sale  out 
of  our  own  country.  AVhy  should  we  take  the  trouble  and  expense 
to  advertise  abroad  ? " 

One  very  ingenious  person,  who  has  invented  a-  most  extraordi- 
nary machine  for  w^eaving  Brussels  and  other  carpets,  said  he  was 
very  desirous  to  send  a  working  model  to  the  Exhil)ition,  but  found 
it  would  cost  him  $5,000  to  put  it  up  there  and  run  it  for  four 
months  ;   too   much,   he  thought,  for  the  price  of  such   a  whistle. 


272  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1851. 

Others  came  to  the  same  conclusion,  and  the  upshot  of  the  matter 
is,  that  from  the  moment  the  proposition  was  fairly  examined  and 

understood,  there  has  been  no  stir  at  all  about  it I  ought 

to  add,  however,  —  what  is  strictly  true,  —  that  everybody  enjoys 
the  splendor  and  success  of  the  Exhibition  just  as  much  as  if  we 
were  a  substantial  part  of  it  ;  every  newspaper  in  the  country,  I 
believe,  glorifying  it,  with  the  arrival  of  fresh  news  of  it  by  every 
steamer 

As  I  am  sending  a  parcel,  I  put  into  it  a  copy  of  Webster's  late 
speeches  in  the  State  of  New  York.  Your  people  neither  comprehend 
that  we  had  a  moral  right  to  make  the  stipulation  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  1788,  to  deliver  up  fugitive  slaves,  — as  we  always  had  done 
before,  —  nor  that  we  have  a  right  to  fulfil  that  stipulation  now  ;  nor 
that,  if  we  were  to  separate  from  the  slave  States  rather  than  fulfil  it, 
we  should  be  obliged  to  renew  it  in  the  form  of  a  treaty,  or  enter  into 
an  endless  war  with  them,  which  would  be  no  better  than  a  civil  con- 
flict.    The  object  of  the  law  of  1850  is  rather  to  prevent  slaves  from 

running  away  than  to  restore  them  ;  this  it  efi'ects But  as  I 

have  told  you  before,  the  great  difiiculty  which  underlies  all  these 
political  questions  is  the  diff"erence  of  race;  more  formidable  than 
any  other,  and  all  others 

Your  friends  here  are,  I  believe,  all  well,     Prescott,  with  a  gay 

party,  is  gone  to  Niagara,  and  sends  pleasant  accounts  back,  coming 

himself  in  a  few  days.     We  go  off  before  long 

Yours  faithfully, 

George  Ticknor. 

To  Mr.  Webster,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Bellows  Falls,  Vermont,  July  9, 1851. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  thank  you  for  a  copy  of  your  speeches  at  Al- 
bany, which  followed  me  here  last  night  from  Boston,  and  which  I  am 
glad  to  have  in  a  permanent  form,  and  to  read  again,  -svith  few  typo- 
graphical errors. 

However,  I  should  hardly  trouble  you  with  my  thanks  if  the  same 
post  that  brought  your  parcel  had  not  brought  me  a  letter  which  you 
must  in  part  answer.  It  was  from  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Lieutenant- 
Governor '''■  of  New  Brunswick  ;  a  person  who  is  very  muph  of  a  man, 
and  a  most  accomplished  and  agreeable  one,  with  a  wife  to  match. 
He  says  to  me,  —  Fredericton,  July  2,  —  "  What  I  am  now  going  to 

*  The  official  title. 


M.  60.]  FIFTY  YEAP.S  OF  FROGRESS.  273 

say  is  quite  private.  A  report  has  reached  me  that  Mr.  Webster  may 
visit  the  British  Provinces  in  his  vacation.  I  have  also  heard  that 
lie  is  fond  of  fishing.  Now,  if  you  have  an  opportmiity,  pray  say 
that  I  shall  be  delighted  to  see  him,  either  officially  or  incognito, 
whichever  he  may  prefer.  If  the  latter,  I  will  go  into  the  woods 
with  him  myself,  and  show  him  what  sport  can  be  got.  Salmon  fish- 
ing is  uncertain  in  August,  but  good  trout  fishing,  with  the  chance  of 
salmon,  I  could  insure.  Observe,  I  may  be  mistaken  altogether,  but 
nothing  would  give  me  greater  pleasure  than  to  see  him,  if  he  have 
anv  notion  of  seeking  relaxation  among  the  '  Blue  Noses.' " 

I  suppose  Sir  Edmund  is  wrong,  for  I  think  you  will  hardly  have 
vacation  enough  to  go  so  far,  though  it  is  barely  possible  you  may 
feel  yourself  to  be  driven  over  the  line  to  get  any  vacation  at  all.  At 
any  rate,  nobody  but  yourself  can  give  me  the  means  of  answering 
the  question 

I  cannot  tell  you  what  strange  thoughts  my  present  position  gives 
me  ;  mingled  up,  as  they  are,  with  recollections  of  journeyings  through 
the  woods,  and  the  *'  Indian  Charity  School,"  and  President  Wheel- 
ock's  cocked  hat  at  the  end  of  them.  Just  half  a  century  ago  this 
month,  stage-coaches  being  yet  unknown  hereabouts,  it  took  a  pair  of 
horses  six  mortal  days  to  carry  my  father  and  mother  from  Boston  to 
Hanover,  saddle-horses  being  put  in  requisition  to  help  us  along  part 
of  the  time.  Now,  I  am  li\dng  with  my  family  in  a  grand  hotel, 
capable  of  containing  comfortably  a  hundred  persons,  with  a  nice 
private  parlor,  a  luxurious  table,  silver  forks,  champagne,  and  good 

carriages  and  horses,  as  in  Boston,  for  drives It  is,  on  a  small 

scale,  one  of  the  thousand  exemplifications  of  what  you  so  magnifi- 
cently set  forth  about  the  whole  country,  on  the  4th,  at  Washington. 
But  it  is  to  me,  as  it  would  be  to  you,  if  you  were  here,  a  very  strik- 
ing one Yours  faithfully, 

George  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Charles  Lyell. 

Boston,  November  25,  1851. 
My  dear  Lyell,  —  I  have  been  attending  a  good  many  lectures 
of  a  course  now  going  on  at  the  Lowell  Institute,  by  D?.  Dewey,  and 
they  have  made  me  think  often  of  you  and  of  your  projects  for  next 
year.  Dewey's  lectures  —  which  might  make  another  Bridgewater 
Treatise  —  are  very  brilliant  and  able,  and  keep  together  an  intelli- 
gent audience  that  fills  the  hall.  But  he  has  one  advantage,  which 
12*  » 


274  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S52. 

has  served  him  well  thus  far,  and  which  I  wish  you  —  if  it  be  con- 
sistent with  your  other  arrangements  in  the  United  States  —  to  se- 
cure for  yourself ;  I  mean  the  period  for  lecturing.  He  has  the  first 
course  of  the  season  ;  it  is  usually  the  time  when  we  have  the  finest 
weather,  —  October  and  November,  —  and  the  audiences  are  fresh  and 
easfer.  Please  think  of  this.  It  is  a  matter  of  somewhat  more  con- 
sequence  than  it  was  when  you  were  here  before,  because  lectures  of 
all  kinds  are  less  run  after.  Three  full,  large  audiences,  however, 
still  listen  to  three  diff'erent  courses  weekly,  and  several  minor  ones 
are  going  on  at  the  same  time.  .... 

Please  offer  to  Mr.  J.  L.  Mallett  my  best  thanks  for  the  copy  of  the 
life  of  his  father  he  has  sent  me.  His  father's  name  has  been  familiar 
to  me  from  my  boyhood,  when  I  read  his  "  Considerations  on  the 
French  Eevolution,"  —  published  here,  —  and  received  a  direction  to 
my  opinions  on  that  subject  which  I  think  has  not  been  materially 
altered  since.  I  am,  therefore,  much  interested  in  a  full  account  of 
their  author,  ....  who  was  undoubtedly  one  of  the  best,  as  well  as 
most  far-seeing  men  who  entered  into  the  French  Revolution. 

One  of  the  most  important  points  connected  with  •  that  momentous 
movement  was  the  change  it  made  in  the  laws  for  the  tenure  and 
descent  of  property,  and  the  constantly  widening  results  that  follow 
from  it.  I  have  at  different  times,  and  now  again  lately,  considered 
this  subject,  and  on  talking  it  over  one  day  at  dinner  with  Mr.  Tre- 
menheere  *  he  told  me  Lord  Lovelace  had  published  a  most  impor- 
tant pamphlet  about  it Will  you  do  me  the  favor  to  make 

some  inquiry  about  it,  and  if  there  be  such  a  pamphlet  send  me  a 
copy  of  it.  Affectionate  regards  to  dear  Lady  Lyell  from  all  of  us, 
as  well  as  to  yourself. 

Yours  faithfully, 


Geo.  Ticknor. 


To  F.  "Wolf,  Vienna. 


Boston,  April  6,  1852. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  thank  you  for  the  curious  and  interesting  tracts 

you  have  been  so  good  as  to  send  me  on  Castillejo,  and  on  Don 

Francis  de  Zuniga,  but  especially  for  your  admirable  paper  on  the 

remarkable  collection  of  Spanish  Ballads,  that  you  found  at  Prague. 

*  Hugh  Sejonour  Tremenheere,  one  of  the  many  cnltivated  Englishmen  Avho 
in  these  years  were  familiar  guests  at  Mr.  Ticknor's  house.  He  was  author  of 
"  Political  Experience  of  tlie  Ancients  in  its  Bearing  upon  Modern  Times,"  and 
"  Constitution  of  the  United  States  compared  with  our  own." 


^.GO.]  ■      SPANISH   MATTERS.  275 

The  settlement  of  the  date  of  Castillejo's  death  is  important,  and 
gets  over  a  ditriculty  which  everybody  who  has  looked  into  his  lite 
must  have  felt  ;  and  the  discussion  about  the  old  Romances  sueltos 
has  the  thoroughness,  finish,  and  conscientious  exactness  which  marks 
everything  of  yours  that  I  have  seen.  I  have  studied  all  four  of 
them  with  care,  and  have  no  doubt  you  are  right  in  the  result  of 
your  investigations  in  each  case.  For  the  kindness  with  which  you 
speak  of  me,  I  beg  leave  to  make  you  my  best  acknowledgments. 

I  should  have  thanked  you  long  before  this  time  for  these  proofs 
of  your  remembrance  and  good- will,  and  for  the  very  interesting 
letter  that  came  with  them,  if  I  had  not  been  constantly  hoping  to 
receive  from  Germany  a  copy  of  my  "  History  of  Spanish  Literature," 
translated  by  Dr.  Julius,  and  enriched  by  dissertations  from  you  on 
the  Eomanceros  and  Cancioneros.  Five  months  ago  half  of  it  was 
printed,  but  since  that  time  I  have  heard  not  a  word  about  it.  I  have 
resolTed,  therefore,  to  wait  no  longer,  but  to  send  you  now  my  very 
hearty  acknowledgments  ;  indeed,  to  thank  you  beforehand  for  what 
I  know  you  have  done  to  render  my  History  more  valuable  in  my 
own  eyes,  as  well  as  those  of  all  who  are  interested  in  its  subject. 

Prescott  is  well,  and  is  busy  with  his  "  Philip  II.,"  but  the  state  of 
his  eyes  compels  him  to  work  slowly. 

i  hope  I  may  soon  hear  from  you,  and  soon  see  the  German  vol- 
umes, in  "which  my  name  will  have  the  honor  of  being  associated 
with  yours. 

Very  faithfully  your  friend  and  servant, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  June  14,  1852. 

]\Iy  dear  Sir  Edhund,  —  I  begin  with  business,  for  I  observe  that 
you  are  very  accurate  in  such  matters,  and  I  mean  to  be,  though  I  fail 
sometimes 

Thank  you  for  the  reference  to  the  passage  copied  by  Southey,  from 
Zabaleta,  about  las  ambo,s  sillas.'^  It  seems,  there,  to  be  used  in  its 
primitive  and  literal  sense,  though  I  do  not  quite  make  out  what  are 
the  two  particular  sillas  referred  to.      As  a  proverbial  expression, 

*  Sir  E.  Head  to  Mr.  Ticknor,  June  5, 1852  :  *'Have  you  got  the  first  volume 
of  Southey's  'Commonplace  Book'  ?  If  so,  you  will  see,  at  page  62,  a  passage 
illustrating  the  use  of  the  phrase  las  dos  sillas.  It  appears  there  to  mean  the 
seat  of  war  and  the  seat  of  peace  ;  of  the  manege  and  the  road." 


27G  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1852. 

sometimes  amhas  sillas,  referring  to  tlie  silla  a  la  quieta  and  the 
cdbarda,  and  sometimes  de  todas  sillas,  referring  to  all  modes  of 
mounting  and  riding,  I  suppose  it  means  what  we  mean  when  we 
say  a  man  "  is  up  to  anything,"  just  as  the  converse,  no  ser  para  silla 
ni  imra  albarda,  means  a  blockhead 

Thank  you,  too,  very  much  for  the  note  about  the  New  Testament 
of  Juan  Perez.  I  never  saw  the  book,  and  do  not  understand  whether 
you  have  a  copy,  or  only  saw  one  at  Thorpe's.  But,  if  you  have  one 
at  hand,  I  should  be  much  obliged  if  you  will  give  me  a  little  biblio- 
graphical account  of  it. 

I  am  much  struck  by  what  you  say  about  Francis  Newman  and  his 
"  Phases  of  Faith "  ;  the  more  so,  because  only  the  Sunday  before 
your  letter  came,  I  read  a  book,  by  William  Eathbone  Greg,  called 
"  The  Creed  of  Christendom,"  to  which  your  account  of  Newman's 

could  be  applied  verbatim.     It  came  to  me  from  the  author 

It  is  a  formidable  book,  not  too  long  to  be  popular,  —  a  small  8vo,  — 

nor  too  learned,  but  logical,  fair-minded,  and  well  wTitten He 

takes  ground  similar  to  that  of  Strauss  and  Theodore  Parker,  but  still 
is  original  to  a  certain  degree.  He  draws  heavily  on  the  Germans, 
with  whom  he  is  evidently  at  home,  and  to  whom  he  owes  much 

Kindest  regards  to  Lady  Head  from  all  of  us. 

Yours  faithfully, 

G.  TiCKNOR. 


To  Sir  Charles  Lyell. 

Boston,  June  26,  1852. 

My  dear  Lyell,  —  The  postponement  of  your  visit  to  America 
till  the  first  of  September  hardly  interferes  with  our  satisfaction  at 
the  prospect  of  it,  because  we  cannot,  ^vithout  sacrificing  much  of  the 
benefit  of  a  summer  residence  in  the  countrv,  return  before  the  mid- 

die  or  the  20th  of  that  month But  you  must  not  cut  off  from 

the  other  end  ;  or  rather  you  must  in  fairness  add  to  the  end  of  your 
visit  what  you  take  off  from  the  beginning 

The  Presidential  nominations  are  made,  as  you  know,  and  the 
Democratic  candidate.  General  Pierce,  will  be  chosen  by  a  large 
majority  of  the  electoral  votes 

Kossuth  is  in  New  York,  about  to  embark  for  England.  His 
mission  here  has  not  turned  out  better  than  I  predicted  to  you, 
in  any  respect ;  in  some  respects  not  so  well.  He  has  injured  his 
dignity  by  making  speeches  for  money,  and  he  has  injured  his  re- 


M.  60.]  NIAGARA  FALLS.  277 

specta1)i]ity  by  issuing  "  Hungarian  bonds,"  as  they  were  called,  down 
to  a  dollar,  to  serve  as  tickets  of  admission.  The  whole  number  of 
his  addresses  has  been  about  six  hundred  ;   the  whole  sum  he  has 

collected  in  all  ways,  about  ninety  thousand  dollars But  he 

is  a  brilliant  orator  and  rhetorician  ;  showing  marvellous  power  in 
different  languages  not  his  own,  almost  as  if  he  had  the  gift  of 
tongues  ;  and  acting  sometimes  on  the  masses  as  if  he  were  magnet- 
izing  them I  did  not  see  him  in  private  ;  indeed,  he  was 

hardly  seen  by  anybody,  his  time  being  wholly  given  to  his  great 

public  objects 

Whenever  you  arrive,  you  must  come  dii-ectly  to  our  house, 
whether  we  are  at  home  or  not  ;  for  in  any  event,  I  think,  you 
would  be  better  off  than  you  would  be  at  the  Tremont.     Most  of 

our  servants  will  be  there 

Yours,  always  faithfully, 

Geo.  Tickxor. 

To  G.  T.  Curtis,  Esq. 

Clifton  House  [Canada],  Niagara  Falls,  July  29,  1852. 

My  dear  George,  —  I  received,  some  days  ago,  your  note  written 
at  Newport.  We  were  then  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  where  we 
stayed  ten  days,  our  rooms  —  or  at  least  the  balcony  before  them  — 
overhanging  the  Eapids,  right  opposite  Goat  Island,  ....  making  the 
island  our  great  resort,  seeing  the  sunset  there  daily,  and  passing  two 
evenings  of  superb  moonlight  there.  Five  days  ago  we  came  over 
here,  and  established  ourselves  in  a  neat,  cheerful  little  cottage,  \nih. 
a  large  garden  before  it  ;  the  only  thing  there  is  between  us  and  the 
excellent  hotel  where  we  get  our  meals.  We  have  it  all  to  ourselves, 
and  live  in  great  quiet,  \vith  the  awful  grandeur  of  the  Falls  before 
us  whenever  we  lift  our  eyes,  and  their  solemn  roar  forever  in  our 
ears 

Last  night  Frankenstein,  a  painter  from  Ohio,  —  whom  we  had 
ImowTi  before,  —  took  us  in  a  boat,  and  rowed  us  about  for  near  an 
hour.  Nobody  has  done  such  things  before  ;  not  because  they  are 
dangerous,  but  because  no  eye  for  picturesque  effect  had  ever  de- 
tected its  power.  The  moon  was  nearly  full,  and  I  cannot  describe 
the  awful  solemnity,  magnificence,  and  in  one  instance  preternatural 
gorgeous  glories,  of  the  scene.  We  went  quite  near  the  American 
Falls,  and  when  we  emerged  from  the  shade  of  the  grim  shores,  and 
the  moon  began  to  illumine  the  edge  of  the  waters  above  us,  as  they 
plunged  do^\'n,  there  was  a  quivering  mass  of  molten  silver,  that  ran 


278  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1852. 

along  the  whole  mighty  flood  of  the  waters  as  they  rushed  over,  that 

was  a  thing  of  inconceivable  brilliancv 

I  enclose  you  a  few  notions  about  international  copyright 

You  can  send  them  to  Mr.  Webster  ;  adding  that  I  am  always  at  his 
service 

In  the  matter  of  international  copyright  three  things,  I  suppose, 
are  to  be  considered,  —  the  rights  of  the  author,  the  interests  of  the 
manufacturer  of  books  as  marketable  commodities,  and  the  interests 
of  the  public  as  consumers. 

On  the  rights  of  the  author  you  will  find  a  discussion  worth  looking 
at,  by  Dr.  Johnson,  in  "  Boswell,"  —  somewhere,  I  think,  in  the  first 
half  of  the  book,  —  and  a  more  ample,  but  a  more  prejudiced  exami- 
nation of  it,  in  a  little  volume  by  Talfourd This,  however,  re- 
lates onb'-  to  the  rights  of  the  author  in  his  book,  within  the  limits  of 
his  own  country,  or,  in  other  words,  the  common  question  of  copy- 
right ;  but  this,  it  should  be  observed,  is  the  foundation  of  the  whole 
matter  so  far  as  the  author  is  concerned.  It  is  his  right  of  property 
in  the  book  he  has  written,  the  thing  he  has  created.  Now,  it  does 
not  seem  to  me  clear,  why  this  author  is  not,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
entitled  to  a  protection  of  his  property  in  his  book,  as  far  as  a  mer- 
chant may  rightfully  claim  it  in  his  bale  of  goods  ;  for,  after  all,  a 
book  is  peculiarly  its  author's  work,  since  without  him  it  would  not 
exist,  and  nothing,  therefore,  as  it  seems  to  me,  should  control  or 
limit  his  right  of  property  in  it,  except  that  high  public  expediency 
which,  like  the  right  of  eminent  domain,  overrides  other  rights  and 
takes  the  property  of  one  for  the  benefit  of  all ;  not,  however,  in  any 
case  without  compensation,  which  compensation,  in  the  case  of  author- 
ship, is  to  be  found  in  the  copyright  law,  whose  peculiar  provisions 
are  regarded  as  a  remuneration  to  the  author  for  the  right  of  property, 
which  he  loses  when  that  law  no  longer  protects  him.  The  author, 
therefore,  it  seems  to  me,  is  entitled  to  the  privilege  of  following  his 
book  —  his  property  —  into  a  country  not  his  own,  and  claiming  a 
part  of  his  compensation  wherever  this  property  is  used  ;  one  reason 
in  favor  of  it  being  that  nowhere,  either  at  home  or  abroad,  can  he 
receive  compensation  except  exactly  in  proportion  as  he  confers  bene- 
fit, for  where  his  book  is  not  sold  he  can  receive  nothing  from  it. 

This  I  take  to  be  the  moral  view  of  the  case,  and  I  think  it  is  a 
strong  one  for  the  author,  especially  when  you  consider  that  nine 
authors  out  of  ten  fail  utterly,  and  sacrifice  their  lives  to  the  public 
and  the  world  for  nothing  ;  so  that  the  few  prizes  open  to  their  class 


M  60.]  INTERNATIONAL  COPYRIGHT.  279 

ought  to  be  made  as  good  as  possible,  to  induce  them  to  adventure  in 
a  lottery  so  beneficial  to  society,  but  so  dangerous  to  themselves. 

As  to  the  interests  of  the  bookseller,  the  case  is  not  so  clear  ;  though, 
it  is  quite  clear  that  if  the  author  have  an  absolute  right  of  property 
in  his  book,  it  ought  to  control  the  interest  of  the  bookseller,  who,  in 
that  case,  should  acquire  no  right  but  such  as  he  may  obtain  from  the 
author.  Still,  I  think  the  booksellers  and  publishers  would  be  quite 
as  well  off  with  an  international  copyright  as  they  are  now.  What 
they  should  publish  would  be  their  own  protected  property,  just  as 
much  if  the  book  were  the  work  of  a  foreign  author  as  if  it  were  the 
work  of  a  citizen.  No  man  could  publish  it  in  competition  with  them. 
Now  it  is  well  known  that  the  profits  of  the  American  publisher  are 
greater  on  a  book  protected  to  him  by  copyright,  than  they  are  on  the 
books  he  reprints  without  such  protection.  His  great  enemies  are 
rival  publishers,  who  compel  him,  by  the  fear  of  competition,  or  by  the 
actual  competition  itself,  to  print  his  books  in  most  cases  poorly,  and 
to  sell  them  at  very  small  profit.  I  think,  therefore,  the  American 
publisher  Avould  lose  nothing  by  an  international  copyright,  certainly 
nothing  to  which  he  has  so  good  a  right  as  the  foreign  author  upon 
whom  he  feeds  or  starves. 

But  how  is  it  in  the  third  place,  Tvitb  the  interests  of  the  public, 
which  often  seem  to  rise  to  the  dignity  of  rights  by  their  mere  weight 
and  importance,  with  little  or  no  regard  to  their  moral  qualities  ?  Two 
circumstances,  I  think,  will  tend  to  show  that  the  interests  of  the  pub- 
lic —  the  book  consumers  —  will  be  served  by  a  becoming  interna- 
tional copyright  treaty. 

First,  such  a  treaty  would  prevent,  to  a  great  degree,  the  republica- 
tion here  of  trashy  English  books,  now  so  common.  Few  of  them 
would  bear  to  have  even  a  small  amount  of  copyright  money  added  to 
the  price  of  manufacturing  the  books  here,  and  a  right  to  reprint  with- 
out it  would  rarely  be  asked  of  the  English  owner  by  the  American 
l">ublisher,  and  still  more  rarely  granted.  I  cannot  doubt,  therefore, 
that  the  circulation  of  worthless  or  mischievous  English,  books  would 
be  materially  diminished  by  an  international  copyright. 

And,  second,  I  think  it  would  greatly  increase  the  number  of  Amer- 
ican authors.  We  can  now  make  as  good  books  upon  all  subjects  as 
the  English,  —  upon  some,  such  as  school-books  and  children's  books 
generally,  we  make  better,  —  and,  with  proper  encourag'ement,  we 
should  do  nearlv  the  whole  of  our  own  work  of  writing  books  for  the 
mass  of  the  people.  In  this  respect,  I  conceive,  the  question  stands 
on  the  same  ground  with  that  of  a  proper  tariif.     We  already  exclude 


280  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1852. 

English  school-books  from  our  market,  just  as  we  do  the  coarser  cot- 
tons, and  for  the  same  reason,  and  by  the  same  process.  With  the 
encouragement  of  an  international  copyright,  we  should  soon  supply 
our  market  entirely,  and  supply  it  with  books  more  wisely  adapted 
to  our  wants  generally,  but  never  by  any  possibility  excluding  the 
better  sort  of  English  books,  because  we  can  reprint  them  so  much 
cheaper  than  the  English  publishers  can  furnish  them  to  us 

One  thing  more.  France  has  made  an  international  copyright  treaty 
with  England,  and  the  cases  of  France  and  the  United  States  in  this 
particular  are  so  nearly  parallel,  that,  if  it  is  for  her  interest  to  have 
such  a  treaty,  it  can  hardly  fail  to  be  for  ours.  For  France  prints 
great  numbers  of  English  books  ;  England  prints  hardly  any  French 
books  ;  nothing  so  many  as  she  prints  of  American.  If  reciprocity 
be  desirable,  therefore,  it  is  much  more  nearly  to  be  attained  between 
England  and  the  United  States,  than  between  England  and  France. 
Moreover,  this  principle  of  reciprocity  between  us  and  England  tends 
every  year  more  towards  an  even  balance,  for  the  English  print  ten 
of  our  books  now,  to  where  they  printed  one  a  dozen  years  ago.  True, 
our  books  are  now  protected  in  copyright,  by  a  recent  decision  of  their 
courts  of  law  ;  but  true  it  is  also  that  if  we  do  not  give  equal  protec- 
tion to  their  books,  we  shall  lose  it  for  our  own,  by  act  of  Parliament, 
very  speedily  ;  and  this  protection  is  constantly  growing  more  im- 
portant to  us.  It  may  in  time  be  more  important  to  us  than  it  is  to 
them. 

Half  a  century  ago  I  was  fitted  for  college  in  none  but  grammars, 
etc.,  printed  in  England,  for  no  others  were  to  be  had.  It  is  vastly 
more  probable  now  that,  half  a  century  hence,  English  boys  will  be 
using  manuals  printed  in  the  United  States  for  this  purpose,  —  indeed, 
some  are  using  them  now,  — than  it  was,  in  1800,  that  we  should,  in 
fifty  years,  be  printing  what  we  now  print. 

The  argument  of  future  benefit  is,  therefore,  I  conceive,  much 
stronger  on  our  side  than  it  is  on  the  English.  But  so,  I  think,  is 
the  argument  of  present  benefit.  Through  the  means  of  a  wise  in- 
ternational copyright  treaty,  I  think  we  could,  by  the  exclusion  of 
worthless  and  injurious  English  books,  and  by  the  encouragement  of 
American  authors  and  publishers,  fill  the  country  with  useful,  inter- 
esting, healthy  reading,  to  a  degree  never  knoAvn  before,  and  with 
beneficial  consequences,  all  of  which  cannot  now  be  foreseen.  We 
could,  in  fact,  adapt  our  reading  to  our  real  wants  and  best  interests 
much  more  than  we  do  now,  and  so  do  much  more  by  it  for  the  gen- 
eral improvement  and  elevation  of  the  national  character. 


M.  61.]  SUMMER  TRAVEL.  281 


To  C.  S.  Daveis,  Portland. 

Caldwell,  Lake  George,  August  22,  1852. 

My  dear  Charles,  —  By  this  time  you  may,  perhaps,  be  curious 
touching  our  whereabouts  ;  and  if  you  are  not,  I  have  some  mind  to 
give  you  an  account  of  what  we  have  done  since  I  saw  you  last,  and 
what  we  propose  to  do,  peradventure,  in  the  course  of  the  next  two  or 
three  weeks. 

Our  first  hit  was  Niagara,  and  a  very  happy  one,  as  it  turned  out. 
We  spent  ten  days  on  the  American  side,  ....  but  the  Lundy's  Lane 
gathering  approached,*  and  we  moved  over  to  the  other  side,  where 
we  passed  twelve  days  most  agreeably,  in  a  nice  comfortable  cot- 
tage  It  satisfied  all  my  expectations  of  Niagara, — the  views, 

the  walks,  the  drives,  and  above  all  certain  excursions  by  the  full 
moon  on  the  river,  where  we  rowed  about  in  front  of  the  American 
Falls,  keeping  partly  in  their  shade,  till  the  water  seemed  to  rush 
over  like  sparkling  molten  silver,  or  like  a  line  of  living  fire,  jumping 
and  dancing  for  a  moment  on  the  perilous  edge,  and  then  plunging 
into  the  roaring,  boiling  abyss,  on  whose  verge  our  little  boat  was  all 
the  while  tossing.     It  was  grand,  brilliant,  awful  beyond  anything  I 

ever  saw  ;  quite  beyond  Mont  Blanc  or  the  Jungfrau There 

is  no  real  danger  in  it,  and  at  the  fuU  moon  everybody  will  go  on 
the  river,  I  think,  to  see  it.    We  went  repeatedly. 

From  Niagara  we  went  to  Geneseo,  and  passed  three  or  four  sad 
days  with  our  friend  Mrs.  William  W.  Wadsworth,  whose  husband 
died  after  six  years'  illness,  while  we  were  at  Niagara.  The  beauty 
of  everything  without,  and  the  luxury,  finish,  exactness,  of  everything 
within,  contrasted  strongly  with  the  noiseless  stillness  of  a  house  of 
death 

Here,  again,  —  Lake  George,t  —  is  another  contrast  to  the  rushing 
glories  of  Niagara,  for  the  beautiful,  quiet  lake  is  always  before  us, 
and  nearly  every  one  of  our  pleasures  is  connected  with  it.  Agreea- 
ble people,  however,  we  have  in  the  house,  several  fixtures,  the  same 
we  had  last  year,  —  Dr.  Beck,  the  author  of  the  book  on  legal  medi- 
cine ;  Dr.  Campbell,  the  popular  preacher  in  Albany  ;  and  two  or  three 
others,  ....  with  whom  w^e  have  agreeable,  easy  intercourse.  The 
ruins  of  the  old  Forts,  from  the  time  of  Dieskau  and  Montcalm,  with 

*  A  political  meeting  connected  with  the  Presidential  election  and  the  can- 
didacy of  General  Scott. 

t  In  the  years  from  1851  to  1855,  inclusive,  Mr.  Ticknor  and  his  family  passed 
a  part  of  each  summer  on  the  shores  of  this  lovely  lake. 


282  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1852. 

the  graves  of  tlie  soldiers  who  perished  in  them  and  around  them,  are 
full  of  teachings  ;  while  at  the  other  end  of  the  lake  is  Ticonderoga, 

with  its  old  ruins  and  traditions 

This  week,  we  start  for  the  North  Eiver,  the  younger  portion  of 
the  party  having  never  seen  Catskill,  and  all  of  us  being  pleased  to 
pass  a  little  time  at  West  Point,  after  which  it  is  likely  enough  we 
may  fetch  a  circuit  by  Newport,  to  see  JNIrs.  Norton,  and  reach  home 
about  September  15. 


^.61.]  FUNERAL  OF   MR.   WTiBSTER.  283 


CHAPTEE    XIV. 

Letters.  —  Death  of  Mr.  Webster.  —  Crimean  War.  —  Letters  to  G.  S. 
Daveis,  E.  Everett,  Sir  E.  Head,  King  John  of  Saxony,  Sir  C. 
Lyell. 

To  C.  S.  Daveis,  Portland. 

Boston,  October  30, 1852. 

My  dear  Charles,  —  I  received  your  letter,  in  your  old  familiar 
hand,  —  always  welcome  to  my  eyes,  —  when  I  returned  last  evening 
from  the  funeral.'^  It  was  refreshing  to  me,  and  I  needed  some  re- 
freshment. The  scene  had  been  inexpressibly  solemn  and  sad.  The 
family  had  declined  from  the  President  and  the  Governor  everything 
like  the  ceremonial  observances  customary  on  such  occasions,  and  he 
was  buried  simply  as  a  Marshfield  man,  with  Marshfield  pall-bearers  ; 
his  kin  —  and  servants,  chiefly  black  —  following  next,  and  then  all 
who  had  come  uninvited  to  see  him  laid  in  his  grave.  How  many  of 
them  were  there  I  know  not.  The  procession  —  wholly  on  foot  — 
was  above  half  a  mile  long,  and  we  walked  about  a  mile  to  the  tomb, 
through  a  line  of  saddened  forms  and  faces  on  each  side  of  us,  the 
eminence  to  which  we  advanced  being  all  the  while  black  with  the 
crowds  on  it,  and  the  crowd  on  the  lawn  before  the  house  seeming, 
as  we  looked  back,  not  to  be  diminished  in  numbers.  I  do  not  doubt 
more  than  ten  thousand  persons  were  there. 

And  yet  it  was,  in  all  other  respects,  a  mere  New  England  funeral ; 
no  change  in  the  house,  no  change  in  the  ceremonies.  He  was 
buried,  as  his  will  prescribed,  merely  "  in  a  manner  respectful  to  his 
neighbors  "  ;  and  if  any  came  to  share  in  their  sorrow,  it  was  because 
they  had  sorrow  of  their  own  to  bring  them.  No  military  display  on 
earth  was  ever  equal  to  this  moral  display  of  the  feeling  of  a  whole 
people ;  no  ceremonies  ordained  by  imperial  power  could  .ever  so  strike 
on  the  hearts  of  men 

We  are  all  well,  but  I  have  been  very  much  cut  up  the  last  fort- 

*  The  funeral  of  Mr.  Webster,  who  had  died  on  the  24th.  Late  in  Septem- 
ber Mr.  Ticknor  had  visited  him  at  Marshfield. 


284  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1852. 

night,  less  perhaps  hy  my  own  sorrow  than  by  occupation  wdth  all 
the  arrangements,  and  constant  excitement  from  the  sorrows  of  oth- 
ers. In  my  time,  Boston  has  never  been  so  saddened  before  ;  and,  if 
I  am  not  mistaken,  the  same  number  of  people  were  never  so  sad- 
dened before  in  this  country.  Such  a  meeting  as  was  held  [here] 
last  Wednesday,  of  three  thousand  persons,  is,  I  am  fully  persuaded, 
unlike  any  other  that  was  ever  held  of  so  many  persons,  anywhere  ; 
not  a  sound  being  heard  except  the  voices  of  the  speakers,  and  the 
sobs  of  the  audience  of  grown  meii,  and  the  response  of  Aye  to  the 
resolutions  coming  up,  at  last,  like  a  moan.     But  we  will  talk  of  it 

all ;  I  cannot  w'rite.  Yours  always, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


To  Hon.  Edward  Everett,  Washington. 

Boston,  November  20,  1852. 

My  dear  Everett,  —  I  have  received  tw^o  notes  from  you,  and 
sundry  packets  of  letters,  etc.,  relating  to  Mr.  Webster ;  but  I  have 
thought  it  better  not  to  trouble  you  with  answ^ers.  Everything,  how- 
ever, has  no  doubt  come  safely  that  you  have  sent.*  .... 

I  am  surprised  anew  every  day  at  the  sincerity  and  extent  of  the 
sorrow  for  Mr.  Webster's  death.  There  is  a  touch  of  repentance  in  it 
for  the  injustice  that  has  been  done  him,  and  a  feeling  of  anxiety 
about  the  future  in  our  political  position,  which  tend  to  deepen  its 
channel,  as  it  flows  on  in  a  stream  that  constantly  grows  broader. 
The  number  of  sermons  that  have  been  published  about  it  in  New 
England  is  getting  to  be  very  great,  and  the  number  of  those  delivered 
is  quite  enormous 

The  Library  is  getting  on,  but  will  hardly  be  opened  till  after  your 
return.t  I  wTote  a  strong  letter  to  Mr.  T.  W.  Ward  —  in  New  York 
—  a  fortnight  or  more  ago,  about  funding  Mr.  Bates's  donation,  and 
reserving  the  income  to  purchase  books  of  permanent  value  ;  which 
he  sent  to  Mr.  Bates,  "  confirming  it  strongly."    I  added  that  your 

*  Mr.  Everett,  Mr.  C.  C.  Felton,  Mr.  G.  T.  Curtis,  and  Mr.  Ticknor  were,  by 
Mr.  Webster's  wiU,  made  his  literary  executors.  With  his  usual  promptness 
Mr,  Ticknor  began  at  once  to  collect,  from  all  quarters,  whatever  letters,  remi- 
niscences, and  documents  might  serve  as  materials  for  fixture  publications.  He 
made  excursions  to  Marshfield  and  its  neighborhood,  and  to  Fryeburg  in  Maine, 
expressly  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  and  taking  down  the  oral  narratives  of  those 
who  had  been  Mr.  Webster's  neighbors,  or  employed  by  him. 

t  The  Boston  Public  Library,  of  which  an  account  will  be  given  in  the  next 
chapter. 


M.  61.]  ENGLISH  INTERFERENCE.  285 


opinion  coincided  with  mine.     So  I  hope  that  will  be  rightly  set- 
tled   Yours  sincerely, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Fredericton. 

Boston,  December  20,  1852. 

My  dear  Sir  Edmund,  —  I  am  much  struck  with  what  you  say 
ahout  the  ignorance  that  prevails  in  England  concerning  this  country 
and  its  institutions,  and  the  mischief  likely  to  spring  from  it.  In- 
deed, it  is  a  subject  which  has  for  some  time  lain  heavy  on  my 
thoughts  :  not  that  I  am  troubled  about  any  ill-will  felt  in  England 
towards  the  United  States,  for  I  believe  there  never  was  so  little  of 
it;  but  that,  from  Punch  up  to  some  of  your  leading  statesmen,  things 
are  constantly  said  and  done  out  of  sheer  misapprehension  or  igno- 
rance, that  have  been  for  some  time  breeding  ill-will  here,  and  are 
likely  to  breed  more.  I  will  give  an  instance  of  what  I  mean  ;  the 
strongest,  but  by  no  means  the  only  one. 

The  slavery  question  —  as  we  do  not  fail  to  let  all  the  world  know 
—  is  our  great  crux  ;  the  rock  on  which  not  only  our  Union  may  split, 
but  our  well-being  and  civilization  may  be  endangered.  i\ll  our 
ablest,  wisest,  and  best  men  occupy  themselves  with  it,  and  have  long 
done  so ;  and  if  we  cannot  work  out  a  remedy  for  it  among  ourselves, 
we  are  well  satisfied  that  nobody  else  can  do  it  for  us.  Now  in  this 
state  of  the  case,  vvhen  the  sensibilities  of  our  whole  people  are  ex- 
cited on  the  subject  as  they  never  were  before,  popular  meetings  have 
for  some  years  been  holding  in  England  about  it;  American  clergy- 
men have  been  deemed  fit  or  otherwise  to  preach  in  English  pulpits, 
according  to  their  opinions  on  this  text ;  and,  finally,  the  first  ladies  in 
the  kingdom  —  to  be  followed,  of  course,  by  a  multitude  of  the  rest  — 
are  about  to  interfere,  and  give  us  their  advice,  all  well  meant,  cer- 
tainly, but  all  as  certainly  a  great  mistake.  At  least,  so  it  seems  to 
us  at  the  cool  North,  where  no  single  person,  so  far  as  I  know,  defends 
the  institution  of  slaver}'-,  or  would  fail  to  do  anything  practicable, 
within  his  power,  to  mitigate  its  evils.  The  ladies  of  England,  it 
seems  to  us,  have  as  little  to  do  with  slavery  in  the  Carolinas  as  they 
have  mth  polygamy  in  Algeria,  and  know  less  about  it  ;  the  men  of 
England  have,  as  we  think,  no  more  to  do  with  it  than  they  have 
with  our  injustice  to  our  Indians,  or  with  the  serfdom  of  Russia,  and 
its  evils  and  abominations. 

We  feel  this  all  over  the  country,  and  you  will  not  be  surprised  if 


286  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1852. 

we  soon  show  that  we  feel  it.  The  Irish  population  among  us  is  very 
large,  and  has  already  two  or  three  times  made  movements  to  help 
their  kinsfolk  at  home  to  break  up  their  union  with  your  island. 
But  thus  far  they  have  found  little  or  no  sympathy  among  the  rest  of 
our  poiDulation;  the  Anglo-Saxon  part,  I  mean.  Now,  however,  the 
tide  is  turning.  IMeagher  has  been  lecturing  in  New  York  to  im- 
mense audiences,  and,  since  I  began  this  letter,  I  see  by  the  newspa- 
per that  Choate,  the  leading  Whig  lawyer  in  New  England,  Seaver, 
our  Boston  Whig  Mayor,  and  many  others,  who  six  months  ago  would 
have  dreamed  of  no  such  thing,  have  sent  him  a  complimentary  invi- 
tation to  come  and  lecture  here.  He  will  of  course  come,  and  he 
will  produce  not  a  little  effect,  even  in  this  conservative  town.  But 
the  real  danger  is  not  yet  ;  that  will  come  when  the  troubles  in 
Europe  come 

I  dare  say  you  will  smile  at  the  results  to  which  I  come,  and  I  am 
willing  to  believe  that  little  of  what  I  picture  within  the  range  of 
possibilities  is  likely  to  come  to  pass.  But  that  the  tendency  of 
things  at  the  present  moment  is  toward  troubles  with  England,  .... 
nobody  hereabouts,  for  whose  opinion  you  or  I  should  care  a  button, 
doubts 

I  began,  intending  to  vrrite  a  letter  about  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin," 
and  I  have  talked  about  everything  else.  However,  I  must  still  say 
a  word.  I  have  read  it  with  crreat  interest.  It  is  a  book  of  much  tal- 
ent,  especially  dramatic  talent,  ....  but  it  is  quite  without  the  epic 
attributes  that  alone  can  make  a  romance  classical,  and  settle  it  as  a 
j)art  of  the  literature  of  any  country.  As  an  exhibition  of  manners  it 
is  much  more  exaggerated  than  it  should  have  been,  for  neither  its 
good  slaveholders  nor  its  bad  slaveholders  can  be  taken  as  examples 
of  even  a  moderate  number  of  either  class.  As  a  political  book  it 
greatly  exasperates  the  slaveholders,  and  perhaps  most  seriously  of- 
fends those  among  them  who  most  feel  the  evils  of  slavery,  and  who 
most  conscientiously  endeavor  to  fulfil  the  hard  duties  it  imposes  on 
them,  the  very  class  whom  Mrs.  Stowe  should,  both  as  a  Christian 
woman  and  a  politician,  have  sustained  and  conciliated.  Elsewhere 
—  I  mean  everywhere  but  in  our  slaveholding  States  —  it  will  pro- 
duce an  effect  exactly  in  proportion  to  the  distance  of  its  readers  from 
the  scenes  it  describes,  and  their  previous  ignorance  of  the  state  and 
condition  of  the  questions  it  discusses.  Thus,  in  New  England,  where 
we  have  learned  to  distinguish  between  our  political  relations  to  the 
South  and  our  moral  relations  to  slavery,  it  deepens  the  horror  of 
servitude,  but  it  does  not  affect  a  single  vote But  of  one  thing 


M.  61.]  HISTORY   OF  THE  CONSTITUTION.  287 

you  may  be  sure.     It  Avill  neither  benefit  the  slaves  nor  advance  the      ^ 

slave  question  one  iota  towards  its  solution You  ask  me  aljout 

Bunsen's  "  Hippolytus."  I  can  hardly  say  I  have  read  it.  I  looked 
over  my  copy,  and  then  sent  it  to  my  kinsman,  Mr.  Norton,  who,  from 
having  written  learnedly  on  the  "  Genuineness  of  the  Gospels,"  would 
be  much  more  interested  in  it  than  I  can  be.  I  incline,  however,  to 
Bunsen's  opinion,  that  the  tract  he  prints  is  a  work  of  Hippolytus, 
though  I  am  by  no  means  clear  about  it,  not  half  so  clear  as  I  am 
that  the  tract  itself  is  of  little  importance  to  anybody.  The  rest, 
which  is  foreign  to  the  subject,  seemed  to  me  curious,  —  the  maxims 
high  German,  and  often  very  little  intelligible  ;  the  apology  inter- 
esting to  your  Episcopacy,  but  not  to  my  Puritanism  ;  and  the  Latin 
excursus  on  the  old  liturgies,  or  their  fragments,  most  learned  and 

irrelevant  to  everything  else  in  the  book 

We  wish  you  and  yours  a  Merry  Christmas  and  a  Happy  New  Year. 
Yours  sincerely,  —  shorter  next  time,  — 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  C.  Lyell. 

Boston,  May  23,  1854. 

My  dear  Lyell, —  There  goes  in  the  diplomatic  bag  of  this  steam- 
er a  portion  of  the  printed  sheets  of  a  work  on  the  "  History  of  the 
Formation  and  Adoption  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States." 
It  is  addressed  to  Mr.  ]\Iurrav.  The  book  —  2  vols.  8vo,  when 
completed  —  is  by  my  kinsman,  Mr.  George  T.  Curtis,  and  involves 
the  civil  history  of  the  country,  in  all  the  relations  which  constitute 
the  foundations  of  its  present  prosperity  and  character,  from  1776  to 
1789.  It  is  written  with  ability,  clearness,  and  jDOwer,  and  it  is  aston- 
ishing how  much  of  what  it  sets  forth  from  the  forgotten  journals  of 
the  old  Congress,  and  from  manuscript  sources,  is  not  only  new  to 
many  persons  better  informed  in  the  history  of  the  country  than  I  am, 
but  curious  and  important.  It  will  produce,  I  think,  consideral)le 
effect  here,  and  tend  to  good,  both  as  to  our  condition  at  home  and  our 
relations  with  Europe,  and  especially  England.  You  know  how  con- 
servative Curtis  is,  and  how  frank  and  fearless  he  is  in  expressing  his 
opinions  ;  but  the  main  characteristic  of  the  book  is  a  wise  and  states- 
manlike philosophy,  profitable  to  all The  Nebraska  Bill  has 

passed,  as  we  have  heard  this  morning,  not  in  all  its  forms,  but  in 
effect,  by  a  majority  of  thirteen,  — 100  to  113.  It  is  a  shameful  vio- 
lation of  an  old  compromise,  and  will  tend  to  a  dissolution  of  the 
Union  more  than  any  measure  ever  did.  But  it  will  not  tend  to  in- 
crease the  slave  power 


288  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOE.  [1854. 

Everett  is  quite  ill,  and  has  resigned  his  place  in  the  Senate 

It  is  a  misfortune  for  himself  to  be  obliged  at  this  crisis  to  leave 
public  affairs,  and  a  misfortune  to  this  Commonwealth  and  to  the 

conservative  cause  throughout  the  country He  will  come  up 

again,  I  trust,  in  such  quiet  as  his  home  will  give  him 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  May  26,  1854. 

My  dear  Sir  Edmund,  —  I  have  your  two  letters,  and  thank  you 

for  them  very  heartily High  matters  they  contain  ;  —  wars 

and  laws.  The  first  troubles  me  a  good  deal.  Every  man,  however 
obscure,  is  an  item  in  the  great  and  beneficent  account  of  Christian 
civilization,  and  anything  that  puts  this  paramount  interest  at  the 
least  hazard  is  a  personal  clanger  to  him  and  his  children. 

I  cannot  endure  the  idea  that  anything  should  occur  to  impair  the 
influence  of  England  in  the  world's  affairs.  I  almost  as  much  depre- 
cate —  and,  as  its  corollary,  quite  as  much  dej^recate  —  any  increase 
of  Russian  influence  in  Western  Europe.  I  detest  the  Turks,  who 
have  never  set  their  standard  up  over  a  foot  of  earth  that  they  have 
not  blighted,  and  I  never,  as  I  think,  sympathized  with  Bonaparte, 
except  when  he  threatened  to  drive  them  over  the  Bosphorus.  But, 
above  all,  I  deprecate  and  detest  a  general  war  in  Europe,  which  can 
be  a  benefit  to  no  one  of  the  parties  to  it  in  whom  I  feel  the  least  in- 
terest, and  which  may  be  a  permanent  mischief  to  the  great  cause  of 
Christian  civilization.     I  suppose,  however,  that  it  must  come 

I  bought  some  rare  old  Spanish  books  lately  at  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia, —  "  Belianis  of  Greece,"  1587,  the  original  editions  of  nearly 
all  Antonio  de  Guevara's  works,  etc.,  ....  making  in  all  about  fifty 
volumes,  well  worth  having 

A  few  days  ago  Puibusque,  who  Avrote  the  "  Histoire  comparee  des 
Litteratures  Espagnole  et  Frangaise,"  ....  sent  me  a  thick  octavo 
filled  with  a  translation  of  the  "  Conde  Lucanor,"  a  long  political  and 
military  life  of  its  author,  Don  John  Manuel,  and  copious  notes, 
addinf%  both  in  the  original  and  in  the  Erench,  one  more  tale,  from  a 
manuscript  in  Madrid,  than  was  before  known,  making  the  whole 
number  fifty.  The  book  is  a  creditable  one  to  the  author,  but  not  im- 
portant, except  for  the  new  tale.  One  odd  thing  in  relation  to  it  is,  that 
he  found  some  of  his  best  manuscript  materials  in  my  library  when  he 
was  here  in  1849  ;  a  circumstance  of  which  he  makes  more  honorable 
mention  and  full  acknowledgment  than  Frenchmen  commonly  think 
to  be  needed. 


^.63.]  LAKE  GEORGE.  289 

So,  you  see,  I  go  on,  almost  contrary  to  my  principles,  piling  up  old 
Spanish  books  on  old  Spanish  books.  Qui  bono  ?  Time  will  show. 
I  add  a  few  notes  for  an  edition  of  my  History,  to  be  printed  in  a 
year  or  two,  the  stereotype  plates  now  used  to  keep  up  with  the  de- 
mand being  still  satisfactory  ;  as  nobody  knows  enough  about  the 
subject  to  care  for  such  little  items  as  my  present  researches  can 
afford.  They  are  printing  now  1,200  copies.  But  when  I  make  a 
new  edition  I  shall  sacrifice  the  plates  to  my  vanity  of  making  the 
book  as  good  as  I  can.  Meantime,  the  old  Spanish  books  do  no  harm  ; 
they  amuse  me,  and  they  will  be  valuable  in  some  public  library 
hereafter 

To  C.  S.  Daveis. 

Caldwell,  Lake  George,  August  2, 1854. 

My  dear  Charles,  —  ....  Since  I  wrote  the  preceding  pages 
Cogswell  has  come  in  upon  us  for  a  few  days  ;  he  looks  a  little  thin 
and  pale,  as  a  man  well  may  who  has  been  in  New  York  all  summer, 
but  he  seems  in  good  health  and  spirits.  He  has  already  gone  wdth 
the  ladies  and  Hillard  in  a  boat  to  the  other  side  of  the  lake,  where 
they  spend  the  forenoon  in  those  cool  woods,  with  "  book,  and  work, 
and  healthful  play."  I  seldom  join  in  these  excursions.  Four  or  five 
hours  of  good  w^ork  in  the  forejDart  of  the  day,  in.  our  own  quiet  par- 
lor, is  as  healthful  for  me  as  anything,  and  fits  me  to  lounge  with  a 
few  agreeable,  intelligent  habitues  of  the  house,  all  the  rest  of  the 
time.  We  have  suffered  from  the  heat,  as  all  men  in  the  United 
States  have  this  summer,  I  suppose,  but  less  than  most  of  them.  The 
thermometer  has  averaged  about  seven  or  eight  degrees  below  the 
temperature  from  Boston  to  Baltimore 

To  Sir  E.  Head,  Bart. 

Caldwell,  Lake  George,  August  3, 1854. 
My  dear  Sir  Edmund,  —  I  am  delighted  with  the  news  *  in  your 
letter  of  the  23d  ult.,  w^hich  has  followed  us  here,  after  some  delay. 
You  now  will  remain  on  this  continent  yet  some  years  longer,  but  it 
will  be  under  circumstances  so  honorable  to  you  that  you  w^ill  be  con- 
tent with  what  might  otherwise  grow"  burthensome.     It  is,  too,  a  great 

« 

*  Sir  Edmund  Head  was  appointed  Governor-General  of  Canada.  In  the 
autumn  of  this  year,  when  he  transferred  his  residence  from  Fredericton  to 
Quebec,  he  passed  through  Boston  with  his  family,  and  I\Ir.  and  Mrs.  Tickuor 
accompanied  them  to  New  York. 

VOL.  II.  13  S 


J 


290  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1854. 


opportunity  to  do  good.  The  relations  between  the  two  countries,  as 
they  will  be  adjusted  by  the  Reciprocity  Treaty,  give  you  a  very  fair 
field  ;  as  fair  as  man  can  desire.  I  remember  that  Metternich,  talking 
about  some  old  Austrian  affairs,  once  said  to  me,  "  I  did  not  make  the 
Treaty  of  1809  ;  I  was  to  come  into  the  Ministry,  and  I  chose  to  have 
a  terrain  net  prepared  for  me  by  somebody  else."  This  terrain  net  has 
been  prepared  for  you  by  Lord  Elgin's  treaty,  and  I  do  not  see  why 
you  should  not  earn  a  higher  satisfaction  and  honor  than  his,  by  the 
results  which  it  will  give  you  an  opportunity  to  bring  about.  I  do 
not  mean  annexation.  We  are  too  large  now.  But  the  moral  in- 
fluence of  the  North,  whether  British  or  American,  will  be  greatly 
increased  by  such  an  union  of  interests  as  may  be  made  wisely  to 
grow  out  of  the  present  adjustment.  Indeed,  I  do  not  see  how  any- 
thing but  good  can  come  out  of  it,  so  far  as  the  interests  of  humanity 
are  concerned  ;  and  as  for  the  interests  of  the  two  countries,  it  seems 
to  remove  the  last  perceptible  materials  for  trouble.  Thank  God  for 
that 

We  left  Boston  at  the  end  of  June,  and  have  been  ever  since  on 

the  borders  of  this  beautiful  lake Except  one  or  two  visits  to 

friends,  we  shall  remain  here  till  the  beginning  of  September,  and 
then  establish  ourselves  for  the  winter  at  home,  where  we  shall  be 
sure  to  be  in  season  to  receive  you,  and  delighted  with  the  opportu- 
nity, of  which,  till  the  intimation  came  from  the  Lyells,  we  had  almost 
despaired.  ^ 

We  all  send  our  kindest  regards  and  thanks  to  Lady  Head  and 
yourself  for  your  most  agreeable  recollection  of  a  promise  which  I 
had  wholly  forgotten,  but  which  I  feel  not  the  slightest  disposition  to 
deny  or  evade,  or,  in  American  parlance,  to  repudiate.  Nothing  could 
be  more  agreeable  to  us  all  than  to  visit  you  in  Canada.  The  only 
time  we  were  ever  there  was  in  the  reign  of  the  late  Lord  Dalhousie. 
I  do  not  know  whether  your  residence  is  to  be  in  the  old  chateau  at 
Quebec,  which  we  found  a  most  comfortable  and  agreeable  place  when 
we  dined  there,  and  visited  a  sick  friend  in  his  room,  in  a  way  that 
gave  us  some  notion  of  its  size  and  resources  ;  but  if  you  do,  I  think 
3^ou  will  be  satisfied  with  it,  though  you  will  of  course  find  it  as  cold 
as  Fredericton,  or  colder. 

However,  we   will  talk  of  these   things  in  Boston  next  month. 

Meantime,  give  our  hearty  congratulations  to  Lady  Head.     She  will 

certainly  find  it  more  agreeable  in  Canada,  summer  and  winter,  than 

in  New  Brunswick. 

Yours  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


^.  63.]  LETTER  TO  KEN  YON.  291 

My  girls  are  out  under  the  trees,  reading  the  "  Paradiso,"  the  eldest 
using  the  copy  you  gave  her,  and  helping  her  sister,  who  uses  the 
Florence  edition,  as  she  is  not  yet  so  familiar  with  the  grand  old 
Tuscan  as  to  read  him  without  notes  that  are  very  ample. 

To  John  Kenyon,  London. 

Boston,  January  8,  1855. 
Dear  Kenyon,  —  I  do  not  choose  to  have  another  year  get  fairly 
on  its  course,  without  carrying  to  you  assurances  of  our  continued  good 
wishes  and  affection.  The  last  we  heard  from  you  was  through  Mrs. 
Ticknor's  correspondent,  ever-faithful  Lady  Lyell,  who  said  she  had 
seen  you  in  the  Zoological  Gardens,  well,  comfortable,  and  full  of  that 
happiness  that  goodness  bosoms  ever.  But  this  second-hand  news  is 
not  enough.  We  are  growing  old  apace.  My  girls  laugh  at  me,  and 
say  that  they  will  not  allow  me  the  privileges  of  age,  while  I  continue 
.  to  run  up  two  steps  of  the  house  stairs  at  a  time,  without  knowing  that 
I  do  it.  I  am  wiser,  however,  in  such  matters  than  they  are,  and, 
although  I  am  thankful  for  my  excellent  health  and  for  an  abundant 
reserve  of  good  spirits,  I  know  that,  nevertheless,  I  passed  my  grand 
climacteric  some  months  ago. 

But  enough  of  myself.  We  are  all  well,  wife  and  daughters,  and 
all  send  you  our  love,  and  ask  for  yours  in  return,  despatched  under 
your  own  hand.  If  anybody  like  Hillard  were  going  to  London,  I 
should  charge  him  with  an  especial  commission  to  see  you,  and  bring 
it  back  to  us.  But  such  ambassadors  are  rare,  and  I  do  not  send  less 
than  the  best  to  old  friends  like  you  ;  for  I  do  not  choose  to  lower 
the  standard  by  which  you  measure  my  countrymen.  I  would  rather 
raise  it ;  and  as  I  have  no  ready  means  to  do  this,  you  must  write  me 
a  letter  as  soon  as  you  can,  telling  us  all  about  your  brother  and  his 
wife,  both  most  lovable  people  ;  Mr.  Crabbe  Kobinson,  not  precisely 
in  the  same  category,  but  excellent  in  his  way  ;  that  promising,  briglit 
son  of  Henry  N.  Coleridge,  etc.,  etc.  You  know  who  are  the  persons 
I  need  to  hear  about.     It  is  those  you  like  ;  but  chiefly  yourself. 

Your  friends  here  are  generally  as  you  would  have  them.     Hillard' 
is  crowded  with  law  business,  but  only  the  happier  for  work.     His 
ibopk  on  Italy  is  more  successful  than  anything  of  the  sort  ever  printed 
among  us.     Above  five  thousand  copies  have  been  sold.     I  trust  you 

have  read  it Prescott  is  well,  and  has  in  press  the  first  two 

volumes  of  his  "  Philip  II."     We  see  him  almost  daily,  and  he  is  as 
fresh  as  ever,  with  twenty  good  years  of  work  in  him,  at  fifty-nine. 


292  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1855. 

Savage,  blessed  old  man,  is  busy  with  his  unending  antiquarian  re- 
searches, and  makes  his  last  days  happy  —  though  an  excellent  wife 
and  two  daughters  have  been  taken  from  him  —  by  bringing  to  his 
home  a  daughter,  made  to  carry  sunshine  anywhere,  and  a  son-in-law 
of  much  intellectual  cultivation  and  very  agreeable  qualities. 

We  are  worried  about  your  war,  and  are  probably  more  anxious  to 
see  an  end  of  it  than  if  we  were  Englishmen.  At  least,  such  is  the 
case  with  those  of  us  who  are  most  interested  in  the  land  of  our  fore- 
fathers  

My  dear  Kenyon,  remember  us,  as  we  do  you,  with  true  regard,  and 
■write  to  us  as  soon  as  you  can. 

YoTirs  faithfully  always, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  March  2, 1855. 

My  dear  Head,  —  Thanks  for  your  letter,  with  the  references  to 
Calderon  and  Eoniilly,  and  for  the  note  with  its  enclosed  pamphlet 
about  the  Bodleian.  The  reference  to  Eomilly  came  particularly 
apropos  ;  "^  for  I  have  had  two  letters  —  the  second  a  sort  of  postscript 

to  the  first  —  from  Lord  Mahon  about  the  Andre  matter Lord 

Mahon  cited  to  me  an  opinion  of  Guizot's,  given  him  lately  in  conver- 
sation at  Paris,  that  Washington  should  not  have  permitted  Andre  to 
be  hanged  ;  to  which  I  gave  him  your  reference  to  Eomilly,  as  a  Eo- 
land  for  his  Oliver. 

He  is  in  trouble,  too,  about  a  passage  in  his  last  volume  concern- 
ing the  Buff  and  Blue  —  "Mrs.  Crewe,  true  blue" — as  the  Fox  colors, 
which  he  intimates,  you  know,  to  have  been  taken  in  compliment  to 
Washington.  But,  besides  that,  —  as  I  think,  —  the  Whigs  would 
have  been  reproached  for  this  assumption  of  traitor  colors  in  a  way 
that  would  not  now  be  forgotten  ;  these  colors  were  fashionable  earlier. 
You  will  find  a  curious  proof  of  this  in  Goethe's  autobiography,  — 
"Dichtung  und  Wahrheit,"  Book  XIL,  —  where,  speaking  of  the  young 
Jerusalem  as  the  chief  prototype  of  his  Werther,  he  says  that  he  wore 
a  blue  coat,  and  buff  vest  and  underclothes,  with  top-boots  ;  a  dress, 
he  adds,  which  had  been  already  introduced  into  Lower  Germany,  in 
"  Nachahmung  der  Engliinder."  This  was  at  Wetzlar,  in  Upper  Ger- 
many, in  1772,  where  the  fashion  evidently  attracted  notice  as  a  known 
English  one.  Washington's  cocked  hat,  and  that  of  our  army  at  the 
time,  I  have  supposed,  might  have  been  taken  from  the  hat  of  Fred- 

*  Life  and  Letters  of  Romilly,  p.  142. 


M.  63.]  FRENCH  EMPIRE.  293 

erick  II.  and  his  officers.  At  any  rate,  they  are  the  same,  and  the 
Prussian  army  was  then  the  model  army  of  Europe.  But  I  have  no 
authority  for  my  conjecture. 

The  pamphlet  about  the  Bodleian*  is  much  to  the  purpose  about  all 
public  libraries,  and  remarkable  for  being  written  so  early,  before  the 
sound  doctrine  it  maintains  was  endured  either  in  England  or  in  this 
country.  I  shall  bind  it,  and  keep  it  among  my  curiosa,  adding  to  it 
the  anecdote  about  old  Gaisford  and  the  "  Bibliotheque  Nationale." 

I  have  just  been  reading  the  first  volume  of  Prescott's  "  Philip  II." 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  War  of  the  Netherlands.  The  early  chap- 
ters about  the  abdication  of  Charles,  etc.,  he  is  disposed  to  think  are  a 
little  too  sketchy,  a  little  too  much  in  the  style  of  memoirs.  I  differ 
from  him  entirely.  The  manner  is  suited  to  the  subject,  and  is  at- 
tractive and  conciliating  to  a  remarkable  degree.  He  will  grow  grave 
enough  before  he  gets  through,  without  making  any  effort  for  it. 
Moreover,  the  last  half  of  the  first  volume  is  already  such.  The 
battle  of  St.  Quentin,  and  all  about  that  time,  is  excellent,  and  the 
whole  is,  I  think,  in  quite  as  good  a  style  as  anything  he  has  done, 
in  some  respects  better.  .... 

My  letters  from  Paris  are  full  of  matter.  In  one  of  them  I  have 
■words  spoken  by  Guizot  at  a  meeting  of  all  the  Academies  of  the  In- 
stitute, which  I  hear  have  been  printed,  but  which,  as  I  have  not  seen 
them  in  print,  perhaps  you  have  not.  "  We  fail  even  to  use  the  little 
freedom  which  is  left  to  us.  We  are  drunk  with  the  love  of  servitude, 
more  than  we  ever  were  wdth  the  passion  for  liberty." 

The  Emperor,  I  hear,  means  to  gain  personal  military  fame  as  a 
commander,  probably  on  the  Rhine  ;  and  the  adoption  of  De  Morny 
is  openly  spoken  of  as  a  settled  thing.  It  seems  as  if  the  worst  days 
of  the  Roman  Empire  were  come  back.  It  reminds  me  of  a  conversa- 
tion at  Chateaubriand's,  in  1817,  —  of  which  I  have  a  note  made  at 
the  time,  —  in  which  he  said,  "  Je  ne  crois  pas  a  la  societe  Europeenne," 
going  on  to  show  that  we  were  about  in  the  fourth  century  of  the  Ro- 
man Empire.     This  adoption  looks  like  it 


To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  December  23,  1855. 
Mr  DEAR  Head,  —  Our  Christmas  greetings  are  with  you.     By 
New  Year,  if  yonr  reckonings  are  right,  you  will  have  your  books  all 
arranged,  and  dear  Lady  Head  will  have  her  drawing-rooms  in  order, 

*  A  Few  Words  about  tlie  Bodleian.     [By  Sir  Edmund  Head,  j    lb33. 


294  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  [1855. 

so  tliat  both  departments  will  be  going  on  right,  and  you  will  be 
better  off  for  the  winter  than  if  you  had  remained  at  Quebec 

I  have  heard  Thackeray's  four  lectures  on  the  four  Georges,  trucu- 
lent enough  in  their  general  satire,  —  though  not  much  beyond  the 
last  half-volume  of  "  Harry  Esmond  "  about  Queen  Anne,  —  but  full 
of  generous  passages  about  individuals.  The  sketches  of  the  German 
princes  of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  down  to  the  middle  of  the 
eighteenth,  with  which  he  opened,  amused  me  more  than  anything 
else.  They  were  capital.  The  passage  most  applauded  was  a  beauti- 
ful tribute  of  loyalty  to  Queen  Victoria,  and  the  tone  and  manners 
of  her  Court.     It  was  given,  on  his  part,  with  much  feeling,  and 

brought  down  the  house  —  always  crowded  —  very  fervently 

His  audience  was  the  best  the  city  could  give,  and  above  twelve  hun- 
dred strong,  besides  which,  he  repeated  the  lecture  about  George  III. 
to  an  audience  of  two  thousand,  two  or  three  evenings  ago."^  .... 

We  are  all  well,  and  send  you  kindest  regards Pleasant  let- 
ters came  from  the  Lyells,  last  steamer,  and  all  accounts  announce 
the  entire  success  of  Prescott's  book. 

Yours  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  KiXG  John,  of  Saxony,  t 

Boston,  November  20,  1855. 

Sire,  —  I  received  duly  your  Majesty's  last  letter,  full  of  wise  phi- 
losophy and  sound  sense  both  on  European  and  American  affairs  ; 
but  I  have  not  earlier  answered  it,  because  there  is  so  little  to  send 
from  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  that  can  be  interesting  on  the  other. 

We  think  and  talk  about  your  great  war  between  the  eastern  and 
western  divisions  of  Europe,  almost  as  much  as  you  do,  and  look  with 
the  same  sort  —  if  not  the  same  degree  —  of  eagerness  for  telegraphic 
despatches.  For  we  feel  that  all  Christendom  rests  on  one  basis  of 
civilization,  and  that  whatever  shakes  its  foundations  in  one  part  does 

*  Mr.  Thackeray  was,  during  both  his  visits  to  America,  a  familiar  and  wel- 
come guest  in  Mr.  Ticknor's  house,  and  showed  his  responsive  feeling  in  most 
kindly  ways.  Being  in  Boston  at  the  close  of  the  year  once,  he  invited  him- 
self to  eat  his  Christmas  dinner  with  the  Ticknors,  and  on  New  Year's  Eve  came 
to  watch  the  new  year  in  by  their  fireside,  and  drink  the  health  of  his  daugh- 
ters. On  the  stroke  of  twelve  o'clock  he  rose,  and  with  tears  filling  his  eyes 
exclaimed,  "  God  bless  my  girls,  and  all  who  are  kind  to  them." 

t  This  Prince  had  come  to  the  throne,  on  the  death  of  his  brother,  in  August, 
1854. 


M.  64.]  POLITICAL  MOVEMENTS.  295 


mischief  to  the  whole.  No  doubt,  a  revolution  in  Europe  would  not 
be  felt  here,  at  once,  as  a  calamity.  It  might  even,  for  a  time,  add 
to  our  prosperity,  already  as  great  as  we  can  bear.  But  it  would 
come  to  us  at  last,  as  surely  as  the  great  Gulf  Stream  goes  from  our 
shores  to  yours,  and  then  turns  back  to  begin  its  course  anew  from 
the  point  whence  it  started.  And  steam  is  every  day  bringing  us 
nearer  together,  and  making  us  more  dependent  on  each  other. 

Notwithstanding  all  you  may  hear  in  Europe,  there  is  no  prospect 
that  the  United  States  will  involve  themselves  in  the  present  troubles 
of  your  part  of  the  world.  The  apprehension  of  it  that  was  felt  in 
London,  in  the  latter  part  of  October,  was  very  absurd  ;  and  I  am 
happy  to  be  able  to  add  that  the  indiscreet  bullying  of  the  "  Times  " 
newspaper  produced  no  effect  at  all  on  our  population,  which  has 

often  been  so  very  sensitive  to  such  things The  Nicaragua 

matter  —  the  claim  of  the  British  government  to  certain  rights  in  the 
Bay  of  Honduras  —  is  a  matter  which  may  be  much  complicated  by 
diplomacy,  and  draw  long  consequences  after  it.  But  the  obvious 
trouble,  and  the  one  that  can  be  most  easily  turned  to  account,  is  the 
attempt  made  by  the  British  government  last  summer,  in  our  princi- 
pal cities,  to  enlist  persons  for  their  military  service  against  Eussia ; 
breaking  or  evading  our  very  stringent  laws  upon  the  duties  of  neu- 
trals  This  is  a  very  disagreeable  affair.     The  people  can  easily 

be  made  angry  by  it,  because  it  w^as  done  in  a  secret,  underhand 
manner 

The  "  Know  Nothings "  have  come  in  contact  with  the  slavery 
question,  and  have  been  much  injured  by  it  in  their  resources  and 
organization,  for  it  is  very  difficult  now  to  organize  a  new  party,  all 
wdiose  principles  shall  be  acceptable  in  the  free  States  and  in  the 
slaveholding  States  ;  and  it  was  always  foreseen  by  intelligent  men 
that  this  Know  Nothing  party  contained,  in  its  secrecy  and  in  its  in- 
tolerance, the  elements  of  its  own  destruction.  But  it  is  still  strong. 
The  principle,  that  none  but  persons  born  in  America,  bred  in  its 
peculiar  institutions,  and  attached  to  them  by  habit  as  well  as  choice, 
shall  govern  America,  is  —  with  reasonable  limitations — so  just  and 
wise,  that  the  party  founded  on  it  will  surely  leave  its  impress  on  a 
government  as  popular  as  ours  is.  They  may  not  elect  the  next  Presi- 
dent, —  although  even  this  is  possible,  —  but  they  will  succeed  in 
making  a  better  naturalization  law  than  we  have  now,  and  see  that  it 
is  executed  w^ith  justice,  and  even  with  rigor 

Your  short  crops  in  Europe  are  filling  the  great  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi with  population  and  wealth.     The  wheat,  which  it  costs  the 


296  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

great  farmers  in  Ohio,  Illinois,  and  Michigan,  —  whose  population  in 
1850  was  above  three  millions  and  is  now  above  four,  —  the  wheat 
which  it  costs  forty  dollars  to  these  great  farmers  to  raise,  they  can 
sell  at  their  own  doors  for  above  an  hundred,  and  it  is  sold  in  London 
and  Paris  for  nearly  three  hundred.  Indeed,  your  European  wars  are 
not  only  making  the  States  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  the  pre- 
ponderating power  in  the  American  Union,  but  you  are  making  them 
the  granary  of  the  world,  more  than  ever  Egypt  or  Sicily  was  to 
Eome.  So  interchangeably  are  the  different  parts  of  Christendom 
connected,  and  so  certainly  are  the  fates  and  fortunes  of  each,  in  one 
way  or  another,  dependent  on  the  condition  of  the  whole.  The  war 
in  the  Crimea  raises  the  price  of  land  in  Ohio.  A  salutary  movement 
to  protect  our  own  institutions  checks  emigration  from  Ireland  and 
Germany.  The  influence  of  the  Know  Nothings  is  felt  in  Wurtem- 
berg  ;  the  Proletaires  of  Paris  enrich  the  farmers  in  Illinois,  of  whose 
existence  they  never  heard. 

The  law  or  the  legislation  to  restrain  the  use  of  all  intoxicating 
drinks,  by  prohibiting  the  sale  of  them  under  severe  penalties  and  by 
declaring  them  to  be  no  longer  property  when  so  offered  for  sale,  is 
found  ineffectual.  It  will  be  abandoned  in  the  course  of  the  coming 
winter  in  all,  or  nearly  all  the  States  where  it  has  been  attempted  to 
introduce  it. 

I  hope  I  shall  soon  hear  again  from  your  Majesty,  and  that  you 
will  give  me,  not  only  good  accounts  of  yourself  and  your  family,  but 
of  Saxony  and  Dresden,  to  which  we  are  all  much  attached,  and  of 
the  prospects  of  an  European  peace 

I  remain  very  faithfully,  your  Majesty^s  friend  and  servant, 

George  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Charles  Ltell. 

Boston-,  June  9,  1856. 
My  dear  Lyell,  — ....  I  want  to  speak  to  you  of  our  affairs. 
It  is  a  long  time  since  I  have  done  it,  and  I  have  never  had  occasion 
to  do  it  so  sadly.  The  country  is  now  almost  entirely  divided  into 
two  sectional,  fierce  parties,  the  North  and  the  South,  the  antislavery 
fast  becoming  —  what  wise  men  have  long  foreseen  —  mere  aboli- 
tionism, and  now  excited  to  madness  by  the  brutal  assault  on  Sum- 
ner, by  the  contest  in  Kansas,  and  by  the  impending  Presidential 
canvass. 

I  have  not  witnessed  so  bad  a  state  of  things  for  forty  years,  not 


^.64.]  DISSENSIONS.  297 

since  the  last  war  with  you  in.  1812-15.  At  the  present  moment 
everything  in  the  Atlantic  States  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Disunionists, 
at  the  two  ends  of  the  Union ;  Butler,  Toombs,  and  the  other  fire- 
eaters  at  the  South,  seeking  by  their  violence  to  create  as  much  abo- 
litionism at  the  North  as  they  can,  so  that  it  may  react  in  favor  of 
their  long-cherished  project  for  a  separation  of  the  States  ;  and  Garri- 
son, Wendell  Phillips,  and  their  coadjutors  here  striving  to  excite 
hatred  towards  the  South,  for  the  same  end.  It  is  therefore  action 
and  reaction  of  the  worst  kind. 

But  the  majority  of  the  people,  even  at  the  two  ends  of  the  Union, 
are  still  sound  on  the  great  question,  and  will,  I  think,  make  their 
power  felt  at  last.  One  favorable  sign  is,  that  wise  men  are  become 
anxious  everywhere,  and  are  ready  to  act,  and  take  responsibiliti^ 
....  Still,  I  do  not  deny  that  there  is  much  look  of  revolution  in 
the  excitement  I  see  everywhere  around  me.  The  South  is  very  des- 
perate. Its  people  feel  every  year,  more  and  more,  how  they  are 
wasting  away  under  the  blighting  curse  of  slavery,  and  struggle  like 
drowning  men  to  recover  some  foothold  on  solid  ground.  The  North, 
justly  outraged  by  the  assault  on  Sumner,  and  by  much  that  has  hap- 
pened in  Kansas,  loses  —  for  a  time  —  both  patience  and  wisdom,  so 
that  I  hear  "  fighting  the  South  "  constantly  talked  of  as  a  thing  not 
to  be  deprecated. 

But  the  great  West,  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  ....  is  compar- 
atively little  excited  on  the  great  question  that  makes  so  fierce  a  quar- 
rel between  the  northern  and  southern  Atlantic  States.  The  Missis- 
sippi forbids  Iowa  and  Illinois  from  belonging  to  a  diff'erent  country 
from  New  Orleans  ;  and  the  laws  of  the  States  on  its  upper  waters, 
excluding  all  the  colored  race  from  their  soil,  prevent  a  contest  about 
slavery  between  them  and  the  States  at  its  mouth.  I  look,  therefore, 
with  confidence  to  the  West,  to  save  the  Atlantic  States  from  the 
madness  of  civil  war 

Sumner's  wounds  were  severe,  and  became  worse  for  two  days  by 
unskilful  treatment.  I  have  seen  a  letter  from  his  brother,  which 
says  that,  as  soon  as  the  treatment  was  changed,  his  condition  was 

improved,  and  he  has  been  getting  well His  political  position 

is  now  a  commanding  one,  but  not  well  managed  by  his  friends. 
How  he  A\dll  manage  it  himself  remains  to  be  seen,  but  I  think  he 
will  make  fewer  mistakes  than  they  have  made  for  him. 

The  Heads  are  well ;  so  is  Prescott ;  and  so,  I  think,  are  all  your 
friends  here.  JVe  are  eminently  strong  and  stout,  and  the  young 
couple  as  happy  as  a  honeymoon  and  bright  prospects  can  make 
13* 


298  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

them.*  God  bless  them  !  I  was,  much  to  my  surprise,  after  the 
wedding,  overtaken  with  a  strange  feeling  that  I  had  somehow  or 
other  met  with  a  loss.  The  same  feeling  haunts  me  still.  But  I 
mean  to  be  rid  of  it  when  I  get  to  England.  We  have  no  well- 
defined  plans  after  that,  but  I  think  we  may  cross  the  Channel  with 
you,  after  which  we  are  most  likely  to  strike  for  Brussels,  Berlin,  etc., 
and  take  Paris  in  September,  on  our  way  to  Italy. 

Love  to  dear  Lady  Lyell.     I  begin  to  long  to  see  you  both. 

G.  T. 

*  He  liere  alludes  to  the  marriage  of  his  younger  daughter,  and  in  the  close 
of  the  paragraph  refers  to  a  projected  trip  to  Europe,  of  which  more  ^vill  be  said 
in  the  coming  chapters. 


iE.  64.]  BOSTON  PUBLIC  LIBRARY.  299 


CHAPTEE    XY. 

Boston  Public  Library.  —  Its  History  and  Mr.  Ticknor's  Connection 
with  it.  —  His  great  Purpose  to  make  it  a  Free  Library.  —  His  Per- 
severance on  this  Point.  —  His  Labors.  —  Popular  Division  first  pro- 
vided. —  Mr.  Ticknor's  Visit  to  Europe  for  the  Literests  of  the  Library, 
—  Subsequent  Attention  and  personal  Liberality  to  the  higher  Depart- 
ments of  the  Collection. 

FOE  some  time  after  the  publication  of  his  "  History  of  Span- 
ish Literature,"  Mr.  Ticknor  did  not  take  up  any  new  or 
absorbing  occupation,  but,  at  the  end  of  a  little  more  than  two 
years,  he  was  asked  —  unexpectedly  to  him  —  to  take  part  in 
a  work  which  connected  itself  with  plans  and  desires  that  had 
long  been  among  his  favorite  speculations,  and  he  soon  became 
profoundly  interested,  and  zealously  active  in  promoting  the 
organization  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 

In  the  early  period  of  his  life,  when  he  returned  from  Europe 
in  1819,  after  enjoying  great  advantages  from  the  public  libraries 
of  the  large  cities  and  universities  which  he  visited,  the  idea  of 
a  gi'and,  free  library,  to  supply  similar  resources  in  this  country, 
was  talked  of  by  him  with  a  few  of  his  friends,  and  was  for  a 
time  uppermost  in  his  thoughts.  Some  movement  was  made  to 
increase  the  Library  of  Harvard  College,  and  that  of  the  Athe- 
naeum, in  which  he  co-operated ;  but  the  improvements  then 
gained  seemed  to  satisfy  the  immediate  wants  of  the  commu- 
nity, and  the  desire  for  anything  larger  and  freer,  though  it  still 
survived  in  the  minds  of  a  few,  did  not  spread  widely  or  fast. 
During  Mr.  Ticknor's  second  visit  to  Europe,  in  1835-38,  he 
felt  more  than  ever  the  inestimable  resources  furnished  by  the 
great  libraries  to  men  of  intellectual  pursuits  like  himself,  espe- 
cially in  Dresden,  where  he  had  often  twenty  or  thirty  volumes 
from  the  Eoyal  Library  at  his  hotel.     He  therefore  watched  with 


300  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1851. 

interest  every  symptom  of  the  awakening  of  public  attention  in 
America  to  this  subject,  and  every  promise  of  opportunity  for 
creating  similar  institutions.  The  endowment  of  a  great  library 
in  ]^ew  York,  given  by  Mr.  John  Jacob  Astor,  at  his  death,  in 
1848,  was  much  talked  about ;  and  men  of  forecast  began  to  say 
openly  that,  unless  something  of  a  like  character  were  done  in 
Eoston,  the  scientific  and  literary  culture  of  this  part  of  the  coun- 
try would  follow  trade  and  capital  to  the  metropolis,  which  was 
thus  taking  the  lead.  Still,  nothing  effectual  was  done.  Among 
the  persons  with  whom  Mr.  Ticknor  had,  of  late  years,  most  fre- 
quently talked  of  the  matter,  Dr.  Channing  was  dead,  Mr.  Abbott 
Lawrence  had  become  Minister  to  England,  and  Mr.  Jonathan 
Phillips  was  growing  too  infirm  to  take  part  in  public  affairs. 
The  subject,  however,  kept  its  hold  on  Mr.  Ticknor's  mind. 

His  idea  was  that  which  he  felt  lay  at  the  foundation  of  all 
our  public  institutions,  namely,  that  in  order  to  form  and  main- 
tain our  character  as  a  great  nation,  the  mass  of  the  people  must 
be  intelligent  enough  to  manage  their  own  government  with  Avis- 
dom ;  and  he  came,  though  not  at  once,  to  the  conclusion  that  a 
very  free  use  of  books,  furnished  by  an  institution  supported  at 
the  expense  of  the  community,  would  be  one  of  the  effective 
means  for  obtaining  this  result  of  general  culture. 

He  had  reached  this  conclusion  before  he  saw  any  probability 
of  its  being  practically  carried  out,  as  is  proved  by  the  following 
letter,  which  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Everett,  in  the  summer  of  1851. 
A  few  months  before  this  date  Mr.  Everett  had  presented  to  the 
city  —  after  offering  it  in  vain  more  than  once  —  a  collection  of 
about  a  thousand  volumes  of  Public  Documents,  and  books  of 
similar  character,  accompanied  by  a  letter,  urging  the  establish- 
ment of  a  public  library. 

To  Hon.  Edward  Everett. 

Bellows  Falls,  Vermont,  July  14,  1851, 
My  dear  Everett,  —  I  have  seen  with  much  gratification  from 
time  to  time,  within  the  last  year,  and  particularly  in  your  last  letter 
on  the  subject,  that  you  interest  yourseK  in  the  establishment  of  a 


M.  59.]  IDEA  OF   A  POPULAR   LIBRARY.  301 

public  library  in  Boston  ;  —  I  mean  a  library  open  to  all  the  citi- 
zens, and  I'rum  which  all,  under  proper  restrictions,  can  take  out 
books.  Such,  at  least,  I  understand  to  be  your  plan  ;  and  I  have 
thought,  more  than  once,  that  I  would  talk  with  you  about  it,  but 
accident  has  prevented  it.  However,  perhaps  a  letter  is  as  good  on 
all  accounts,  and  better  as  a  distinct  memorandum  of  what  I  mean. 

It  has  seemed  to  me,  for  many  years,  that  such  a  free  public  li- 
brary, if  adapted  to  the  wants  of  our  people,  would  be  the  crowning 
glory  of  our  public  schools.  But  I  think  it  important  that  it  should 
be  adapted  to  our  peculiar  character  ;  that  is,  that  it  should  come  in 
at  the  end  of  our  system  of  free  instruction,  and  be  fitted  to  continue 
and  increase  the  effects  of  that  system  by  the  self-culture  that  results 
from  reading. 

The  great  obstacle  to  this  with  us  is  not  —  as  it  is  in  Prussia  and 
elsewhere  —  a  low  condition  of  the  mass  of  the  people,  condemn- 
ing them,  as  soon  as  they  escape  from  school,  and  often  before  it,  to 
such  severe  labor,  in  order  to  procure  the  coarsest  means  of  physical 
subsistence,  that  they  have  no  leisure  for  intellectual  culture,  and 
soon  lose  all  taste  for  it.  Our  difficulty  is,  to  furnish  means  specially 
fitted  to  encourage  a  love  for  reading,  to  create  an  appetite  for  it, 
which  the  schools  often  fail  to  do,  and  then  to  adapt  these  means  to 
its  gratification.  That  an  appetite  for  reading  can  be  very  widely 
excited  is  plain,  from  what  the  cheap  publications  of  the  last  twenty 
years  have  accomplished,  gradually  raising  the  taste  from  such  poor 
trash  as  the  novels  with  which  they  began,  up  to  the  excellent  and 
valuable  works  of  all  sorts  which  now  flood  the  country,  and  are 
read  by  the  middling  classes  everywhere,  and  in  New  England,  I 
think,  even  by  a  majority  of  the  people.* 

Now  "what  seems  to  me  to  be  wanted  in  Boston  is,  an  apparatus  that 
shall  carry  this  taste  for  reading  as  deep  as  possible  into  society,  as- 
suming, what  I  believe  to  be  true,  that  it  can  be  carried  deeper  in  our 
society  than  in  any  other  in  the  world,  because  we  are  better  fitted 
for  it.  To  do  this  I  would  establish  a  library  which,  in  its  main  de- 
partment and  purpose,  should  differ  from  all  free  libraries  yet  at- 
tempted ;  I  mean  one  in  which  any  popular  books,  tending  to  moral 

*  Mr.  Ticknor  was  much  struck  by  the  publication  of  a  cheap  edition  of 
Johns'  Translation  of  Froissart,  by  the  Harpers,  of  Avhich  he  found  a  copy  in  a 
small  inn  of  a  retired  village  of  southern  New  York,  in  1844 ;  and  he  always 
watched  the  signs  of  popular  taste,  both  in  publishers'  lists  and  in  the  hook- 
shelves  of  the  houses  which  he  entered,  in  his  summer  journeys,  or  in  his  errands 
of  business  and  charity  in  the  winter. 


302  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1851. 

and  intellectual  improvement,  should  be  furnished  in  such  numbers 
of  copies  that  many  persons,  if  they  desired  it,  could  be  reading  the 
same  work  at  the  same  time  ;  in  short,  that  not  only  the  best  books 
of  all  sorts,  but  the  pleasant  literature  of  the  day,  should  be  made  ac- 
cessible to  the  whole  people  at  the  only  time  when  they  care  for  it, 
i.  e.  when  it  is  fresh  and  new.  I  would,  therefore,  continue  to  buy 
additional  copies  of  any  book  of  this  class,  almost  as  long  as  they 
should  continue  to  be  asked  for,  and  thus,  by  following  the  popular 
taste,  —  unless  it  should  demand  something  injurious,  —  create  a  real 
appetite  for  healthy  general  reading.  This  appetite,  once  formed, 
will  take  care  of  itself.  It  will,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  demand 
better  and  better  books  ;  and  can,  I  believe,  by  a  little  judicious  help, 
rather  than  by  any  direct  control  or  restraint,  be  carried  much  higher 
than  is  generally  thought  possible. 

After  some  details,  of  no  present  consequence,  developing  this 
idea,  the  letter  goes  on  :  — 

Nor  would  I,  on  this  plan,  neglect  the  establishment  of  a  depart- 
ment for  consultation,  and  for  all  the  common  purposes  of  public 
libraries,  some  of  whose  books,  like  encyclopoedias  and  dictionaries, 
should  never  be  lent  out,  while  others  could  be  permitted  to  circulate  ; 
all  on  the  shelves  being  accessible  for  reference  as  many  hours  in  the 
day  as  possible,  and  always  in  the  evening.  This  part  of  the  library, 
I  should  hope,  would  be  much  increased  by  donations  from  public- 
spirited  individuals,  and  individuals  interested  in  the  progress  of 
knowledge,  while,  I  think,  the  public  treasury  should  provide  for  the 
more  popular  department 

Intimations  of  the  want  of  such  public  facilities  for  reading  are,  I 
think,  beginning  to  be  given.  In  London  I  notice  advertisements  of 
some  of  the  larger  circulating  libraries,  that  they  purchase  one  and 
two  hundred  copies  of  all  new  and  popular  works  ;  and  in  Boston,  I 
am  told,  some  of  our  own  circulating  libraries  will  purchase  almost 
any  new  book,  if  the  person  asking  for  it  will  agree  to  pay  double 
the  usual  fee  for  reading  it ;  while  in  all,  I  think,  several,  and  some- 
times many  copies  of  new  and  popular  works  are  kept  on  hand  for  a 
time,  and  then  sold,  as  the  demand  for  them  dies  away. 

Omitting  other  details,  now  of  no  importance,  the  letter  ends 
as  follows  :  — 

Several  years  ago  I  proposed  to  Mr.  Abbott  Lawrence  to  move  in 
favor  of  such  a  library  in  Boston  ;  and,  since  that  time,  I  have  occa- 


M.  59.]  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  MR.   E^TRETT.  303 

sionally  suggested  it  to  other  persons.  In  every  case  the  idea  has 
been  well  received  ;  and  the  more  I  have  thought  of  it  and  talked 
about  it,  the  more  I  have  been  persuaded,  that  it  is  a  plan  easy  to  be 
reduced  to  practice,  and  one  that  would  be  followed  by  valuable 
results. 

I  wish,  therefore,  that  you  would  consider  it,  and  see  what  objec- 
tions there  are  to  it.  I  have  no  purpose  to  do  anything  more  about 
it  myself  than  to  write  you  this  letter,  and  continue  to  speak  of  it,  as 
I  have  done  heretofore,  to  persons  who,  like  yourself,  are  interested 
in  such  matters.  But  I  should  be  well  pleased  to  know  how  it 
strikes  you. 

To  this  letter  Mr.  Everett  replied  as  follows  :  — 

Cambridge,  July  26,  1851. 

My  dear  Ticknor,  —  I  duly  received  your  letter  of  the  14th  from 
Bellows  Falls,  and  read  it  with  great  interest. 

The  extensive  circulation  of  new  and  popular  works  is  a  feature  of 
a  public  library  which  I  have  not  hitherto  much  contemplated.  It 
deserves  to  be  well  weighed,  and  I  shall  be  happy  hereafter  to  confer 
with  you  on  the  subject.  I  cannot  deny  that  my  views  have,  since 
my  younger  days,  undergone  some  change  as  to  the  practicability  of 
freely  loaning  books  at  home  from  large  public  libraries.  Those  who 
have  been  connected  with  the  administration  of  such  libraries  are  apt 
to  get  discouraged,  by  the  loss  and  damage  resulting  from  the  loan  of 
books.  My  present  impressions  are  in  favor  of  makmg  the  amplest 
provision  in  the  library  for  the  use  of  books  there. 

Your  plan,  however,  is  intended  to  apply  only  to  a  particular  class 
of  books,  and  does  not  contemplate  the  unrestrained  circulation  of 
those  of  which  the  loss  could  not  be  easily  replaced. 

That  Boston  must  have  a  great  public  librar}-,  or  yield  to  New 
York  in  letters  as  well  as  in  commerce,  will,  I  think,  be  made  quite 
apparent  in  a  few  years.  But  on  this  and  other  similar  subjects  I 
hope  to  have  many  opportunities  of  conferring  with  you  next  winter. 

The  difference  of  opinion,  here  made  evident,  as  to  the  possi- 
bility or  safety  of  allowing  books  to  circulate  freely,  was  not 
removed  by  many  subsequent  conversations,  nor  Av'ere  the  hopes 
of  either  of  the  gentlemen,  with  regard  to  the  establishment  of 
a  great  librar}",  raised  even  when,  in  the  early  part  of  1852,  the 
mayor,  Mr.  Seaver,  recommended  that  steps  be  taken  for  such 


304  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  [1852. 


an  object,  and  the  Common  Council,  presided  over  by  Mr.  James 
Lawrence,  proposed  that  a  board  of  trustees  for  such  an  institu- 
tion should  be  appointed.  When,  therefore,  both  Mr.  Everett 
and  Mr.  Ticknor — the  latter  greatly  to  his  surprise — were  invited 
to  become  members  of  this  board,  they  conferred  together  anew 
on  the  project ;  and,  although  the  mayor,  on  hearing  Mr.  Tick- 
nor's  views,  was  much  pleased  with  them,  and  urged  him  to 
take  the  place,  yet  he  at  one  time  determined  to  decline  the 
office,  certainly  unless  the  library  were  to  be  open  for  the  free 
circulation  of  most  of  its  books,  and  unless  it  were  to  be  dedi- 
cated, in  the  first  instance,  rather  to  satisfying  the  wants  of  the 
less  favored  classes  of  the  community,  than  —  like  all  public 
libraries  then  in  existence  —  to  satisfying  the  wants  of  scholars, 
r       men  of  science,  and  cultivated  men  generally.  "^ 

Mr.  Everett's  opinion  was  not  changed ;  but  seeing  Mr.  Tick- 
nor's  determination  to  co-operate  in  no  other  plan,  and  perhaps 
feeling  himself  the  difficulties  of  beginning  with  any  other,  he 
agreed  at  last  —  though  not  convinced  —  that  the  experiment 
of  a  popular  institution  of  the  freest  sort  should  be  tried,  and 
the  two  friends  accepted  their  appointments  as  trustees  of  a 
prospective  library.  Erom  that  moment  their  co-operation  in 
its  affairs  was  cordial  and  comj)lete ;  and  although  Mr.  Everett 
never  fully  believed  in  the  practical  benefits  of  Mr.  Ticknor's 
■plsm,  he  was  perfectly  faithful  to  his  promise,  that  it  should 
have  a  fair  chance.f 

But  the  library  did  not  yet  exist.  In  an  attic  of  the  City 
Hall  —  in  the  old  building,  of  which  no  part  was  spacious,  or 

*  See  letter  to  Trustees,  April  16, 1860,  printed  in  the  Eighth  Annual  Report, 
pp.  34,  35. 

t  In  a  note  of  May  15,  1867,  from  Mr.  Jewett,  the  first  Superintendent  of  the 
Public  Library,  to  Mr.  Ticknor,  he  says :  "  Few  persons  alive  know  as  well  as 
you  and  I  do,  that  with  regard  to  the  great  features  of  the  plan,  —  the  free  cir- 
culation of  the  books,  and  the  paramount  importance  attached  to  the  popular 
department,  —  Mr.  Everett  had,  from  the  beginning,  serious  misgivings,  and 
that  he  yielded  his  own  doubts  only  to  your  urgency.  He  repeated  to  me  within, 
I  think,  a  week  previous  to  his  death,  the  doubts  which  he  said  he  had  always 
entertained  on  these  points,  and  said  that  he  did  not  think  that  he  should  have 
yielded  his  assent,  but  for  your  determination  not  to  put  your  hand  to  the  work 
unless  these  features  of  the  plan  were  adopted  in  all  their  prominence.     - 


M.  Gl.]  FIRST  REPORT  OF  TRUSTEES.  305 

well  appointed  —  four  or  five  thousand  volumes  were  stored, 
consisting  of  documents  given  by  the  city  of  Paris,  by  Mr.  Win- 
throp,  Mr.  Everett,  and  others,  —  books  entirely  unsuited  to 
stimulate  either  the  popular  taste  for  reading,  or  the  disposition 
of  the  Common  Council  to  make  appropriations.  In  the  city 
treasury  was  the  sum  of  one  thousand  dollars,  given  about  two 
years  before  by  the  then  mayor,  Mr.  J.  P.  Bigelow,  "  in  aid  of 
the  establishment  of  a  Free  PubUc  Library,"  from  the  income  of 
which  some  of  the  books  had  been  bought.  Clearly  the  library 
was  yet  to  be  founded. 

The  newly  formed  Board  of  Trustees  appointed  a  committee 
of  four  to  consider  their  work,  and  Mr.  Everett  and  Mr.  Ticknor 
were  made  a  sub-committee  to  draw  up  a  report.     Mr.  Ticknor  1 

prepared  for  this  purpose  a  paper,  expounding  the  principles  and 
plan  on  Avhich  the  institution  was  to  be  founded,  —  these  being 
his  own,  —  and  Mr.  Everett  left  this  entirely  untouched,  adding 
some  pages,  at  the  beginning  and  end,  on  the  general  import 
of  the  project.*  From  this  moment  Mr.  Ticknor  felt  that 
he  had  assumed  a  great  responsibility,  and,  while  he  never  met 
with  obstacles  raised  by  Mr.  Everett,  who  was  loyal  through- 
out, yet  he  was  led,  thenceforward,  to  make  many  exertions, 
and  to  do  much  laborious,  disinterested  work,  both  here  and 
in  Europe,  which  would  not  otherwise  have  been  incumbent  on 
him.t 

When  Mr.  Bates's  munificence  came,  like  a  great  light  shining 
in  upon  their  faint  hopes,  it  came  in  consequence  of  the  efi'ect  - 

produced  on  his  mind  by  this  report,  —  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Tick- 
nor and  Mr.  Everett,  —  because  he  saw  the  importance  to  his 
native  town  of  such  a  library  as  is  there  recommended.;}:  Here, 
then,  was  the  founding  of  a  library,  a  gift  of  $  50,000,  witli  the 
condition  annexed,  that  the  city  should  erect  a  suitable  building 

*  City  document,  No.  37,  1852.    Mr.  Ticknor's  part,  p.  9  to  p.  21. 

t  He  spent  more  than  a  year  abroad,  in  1856  -  57,  at  his  own  expense,  for  the 
express  purpose  of  conferring  with  Mr.  Bates,  establishing  agencies,  and  pur- 
chasing books  for  the  Library. 

X  In  his  letter  to  Mr.  Seaver,  October  1,  1852,  Mr.  Bates  says,  he  is  "im- 
pressed with  the  importance  to  rising  and  futui'e  generations  of  such  a  library 
as  is  recommended." 

T 


306  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1854. 

for  the  use  of  the  institution.*  And  now  began  the  practical 
labors  of  organizing  the  scheme,  collecting  the  books,  and  per- 
fecting the  details  of  a  system  as  yet  entirely  new  and  untried. 

To  follow  ^Ir.  Ticknor  minutely  and  closely  through  all  the 
steps  of  the  development  of  this  work  would  require  more  space 
than  belongs  to  the  subject  here,  but  at  certain  points  his  influ- 
ence and  his  exertions  may  be  described.  The  whole  was  in 
harmony  with  his  life-long  purpose,  to  make  his  own  intellectual 
attainments  useful  by  promoting  culture  in  others. 

That  much  labor  fell  upon  him  it  is  needless  to  say  to  any 
one  who,  with  any  knowledge  of  what  had  to  be  accomplished, 
regards  certain  facts,  —  his  fitness  for  the  work ;  his  responsi- 
bility for  the  plan ;  the  general  ignorance  about  such  institu- 
tions, which  could  not  fail  to  be  represented  in  the  Board  of 
Trustees  ;  and  the  absence  of  Mr.  Everett  during  a  very  impor- 
tant part  of  the  time,  he  being  in  Washington,  as  Secretary  of 
State  of  the  United  States,  from  November,  1852,  till  May, 
1854. 

Before  Mr.  Bates's  offer  of  his  first  great  donation  was  re- 
ceived, the  City  Government  had  granted  the  use  of  two  small 
rooms  in  a  school-house  in  Mason  Street  for  the  purposes  of  the 
library,  and  although  the  scale  on  which  even  the  preliminaries 
were  to  be  designed  was,  of  course,  altered  by  this  gift,  it  was 
in  those  small  rooms,  and  with  about  twelve  thousand  volumes, 
—  only  seven  thousand  of  which  could  be  called  attmctive  or 
popular,  —  that  the  institution  opened,  in  1854. 

Mr.  Ticknor's  first  step  was  to  induce  Mr.  Bates  to  have  his 
gift  funded,  and  to  have  this  done  in  such  a  way  that  tlie  in- 
come only  should  be  expended  by  the  Trustees,  and  also  to  pre- 
vail on  the  Trustees  to  agree  that  this  should  be  done.t  This  he 
brought  to  pass,  and  during  the  year  and  a  half  that  elapsed 
between  the  first  news  of  Mr.  Bates's  intentions  and  the  opening 
of  the  little  library,  an  immense  amount  of  detail  work  was  done 

*  See  vote  of  Trustees,  October  18,  1864,  in  "  Memorial  of  Joshua  Bates," 
pp.  14,  15. 

t  His  reason  for  tliis  was  that  it  would  promote  other  donations,  from  citizens 
who  would  feel  secure  of  the  permanence  of  their  gifts. 


M.  63.]  PRACTICAL  DETAILS.  307 

by  several  persons,  and  a  catalogue,  corrected  by  Mr.  Ticknor  as 
it  went  through  the  press,  was  ready  to  be  sold  cheaply,  so  that 
what  books  were  there  might  be  easily  accessible  to  all.*  On 
the  day  when  books  were  first  given  out  Mr.  Ticknor  passed 
many  hours  in  watching  the  process,  and  recorded  the  fact  that 
the  first  taken  out  was  the  first  volume  of  Southey's  "  Common- 
place Book." 

In  developing  his  predominant  wish  and  idea,  one  of  the  first 
points  he  put  forward  —  and  he  did  it  in  the  first  report,  July, 
1852  —  was  that  of  connecting  the  Library  with  the  public 
schools,  by  granting  the  privileges  of  it  to  those  boys  and  girls 
who  had  won  the  Franklin  medal  prizes.  On  his  suggestion, 
the  Trustees  in  their  "  Rules "  made  this  to  bear  a  still  wider 
construction,  and  to  admit  in  addition  an  equal  number  of  the 
pupils  selected  for  good  conduct  by  the  teachers.  Thus  the  use 
of  the  Library  was  made  an  object  of  ambition  in  the  schools. 

Another  and  a  favorite  proposal  of  his  was  much  discussed 
and  somewhat  opposed  among  the  Trustees,  —  that  of  allowing 
frequenters  of  the  Library  to  ask  for  books  to  be  purchased,  and 
for  that  purpose  to  supply  cards  or  blanks  for  such  applications. 
He  gained  this  point,  also,  and  persevered  in  having  it  not  only 
offered  but  urged,  although  for  ten  years  this  great  and  useful 
privilege  was  not  appreciated.  Until  1865  the  public  could  not 
be  induced  to  understand  or  avail  itself  of  this  opportunity,  and, 
before  that  time,  the  Trustees  had  come  fully  to  apprehend  the 
value  to  them  of  such  requests,  in  pointing  out  what  was  de- 
sirable to  purchase,  and  would  be  immediately  useful. 

In  the  matter  of  furnishing  duplicates  of  books  most  asked 
for,  it  was  not  easy,  under  the  system  first  adopted,  to  discover 
what  were  the  most  sought,  and  a  good  deal  of  extra  work  had 
to  be  done,  in  the  course  of  which  Mr.  Ticknor  had  a  report,  of 
the  facts  ascertained  during  the  day,  brought  to  him  every  even- 
ing, sometimes  as  late  as  eleven  o'clock.     A  new  and  unexpected 

*  An  unobtrusive  form  of  occupation  which  —  having  already  been  habitual 
with  Mr.  Ticknor  on  account  of  his  own  private  purchases  —  now  became  inces- 
sant, was  the  reading  of  trade  catalogues  of  books,  for  sale  at  auctions  and  by 
booksellers  or  publishers,  piles  of  which  catalogues  always  lay  on  his  table. 


308  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1855. 


reason  for  confidence  appeared  now,  in  the  evidence  that  most 
people  resorting  to  the  Library  desired  very  much  to  obtain  some 
book,  but  were  not  so  anxious  to  get  one  particular  book  that 
they  would  complain  of  missing  it,  if  they  got  something  to  read. 
This  was  unlooked  for  and  reassuring. 

Although  after  1855  Mr.  C.  C.  Jewett,  an  accomplished  bib- 
liographer and  librarian,  was  much  employed  in  the  practical 
labors  of  the  new  Library,  yet,  until  the  office  of  superintendent 
was  created  and  Mr.  Jewett  established  in  it,  in  1858,  Mr.  Tick- 
nor  continued  very  constantly  and  often  absorbingly  occupied 
with  its  duties. 

Mr.  Everett  was  unable  to  give  much  time  to  the  interests  of 
the  Library,  and  repeatedly  wished  to  resign,  calling  himself  only 
"  a  parade  officer " ;  but  at  Mr.  Ticknor's  constant  urgency  he 
remained,  and,  faithfully  giving  his  name  and  influence  to  the 
institution,  he  enabled  Mr.  Ticknor  to  go  on  with  the  work, 
which  he  often  told  his  friend  he  should  be  obliged  to  abandon 
if  he  resigned,  for  the  annoyances  and  difficulties  he  encountered 
were  certainly  not  less  than  are  usual  in  such  cases. 

When  the  city  set  about  fulfilling  the  condition  Mr.  Bates  had 
annexed  to  his  gift,  by  erecting  a  suitable  building,  Mr.  Ticknor 
was  placed  on  the  Commission  of  seven,  appointed  for  that  pur- 
pose, but  it  was  expressly  against  his  wish  that  this  was  done. 
He  found  himself  always  in  a  minority,  more  and  more  dissatis- 
fied with  all  that  was  doing,  and  at  last  withdrew  from  the  board 
entirely,  feeling  that  the  building  was  costing  too  much,  and  was 
much  less  well  adapted  to  its  purpose  than  it  should  be.* 

It  was,  perhaps,  fortunate  that  he  could  withdraw  from  those 
unpleasant  duties,  leaving  his  vacant  seat  to  be  filled  by  Mr. 
Everett ;  and  yet,  instead  of  doing  less,  be  actually  employed  in 
doing  more  and  better  work  for  the  institution,  which  had  by 
this  time  become  a  cherished  favorite  with  him. 

When  once  the  work  of  preparing  a  proper  building  had  been 
taken  in  hand,  Mr.  Bates  began  to  give  cautious  intimations  of 

*  He  always  approved  of  the  site  for  the  buildhig  in  Boylston  Street,  which 
was  the  subject  of  much  discussion,  another  piece  of  laud  having  once  been  ac- 
tually purchased  by  the  city. 


M.  64.]  DONATIONS  OF  MR.   BATES.  -309 

further  generous  purposes  in  relation  to  the  Library.  He  kept  up 
a  frequent  correspondence  with  Mr.  Everett  and  Mr.  Ticknor, 
and  in  July,  1855,  he  finally  expressed,  to  both  of  them,  a  dis- 
tinct intention  of  giving  a  large  quantity  of  books  to  fill  the 
shelves  of  the  new  edifice  as  soon  as  it  should  be  ready. 

Mr.  Ticknor  was  passing  the  summer  at  Lake  George,  and 
there  received  two  letters  to  this  effect  from  Mr.  Eates,  and  one 
from  Mr.  Everett  enclosing  what  he  had  received.  Immediately 
each  of  these  gentlemen  expressed  the  conviction,  that  some  one 
should  go  soon  to  England  to  confer  with  this  liberal  benefactor, 
and  each  proposed  that  the  other  should  go.  Mr,  Ticknor  urged 
Mr.  Everett,  as  far  as  he  thought  he  properly  might,  to  undertake 
this  mission,  and  Mr.  Everett  answered  him  in  the  following 
terms,  both  feeling  that  this  was  a  turning-point  in  the  history 
of  the  Library  :  — 

July  25,  1855. 

Mr.  Bates's  letter  to  you  shows,  still  more  clearly  than  his  let- 
ter to  me,  the  necessity,  not  of  sending  an  agent,  but  an  Envoy 
Extraordinary  to  Europe.  His  purposes  are  liberal,  —  munificent,  — 
but  he  does  not  know,  on  the  present  occasion,  what  he  ought  to  do 
to  carry  his  own  views  into  effect.  No  doubt,  when  he  gave  his  first 
fifty  thousand  dollars  he  thought  that  would  do  all  that  was  necessary. 
Now,  nothing  but  full  and  free  conversation  with  some  person  who 
does  fully  understand  the  matter,  and  who  'possesses  his  confidence,  will 
raise  his  views  to  the  proper  elevation. 

I  must  say,  candidly,  that  I  know  nobody  but  you  or  myself  com- 
petent to  this  ;  I  mean,  of  course,  who  could  be  thought  of  for  the 
errand.  I  would  go  if  I  could.  I  thought  over  that  pomt  before  I 
wrote  my  other  letter.  But  I  really  cannot.  You  have  stated  some 
of  the  obstacles,  —  my  wife's  health,  my  own,  and  Will's  education 

(now  my  chief  thought  and  duty)  ;  but  there  are  others But 

if  I  could  go,  it  is  no  affected  diffidence  which  makes  me  say  that  you 
would  accomplish  the  object  much  better.  I  have  no  particular  apti- 
tude for  the  kind  of  executive  operations  which  this  errand  requires, 
—  I  mean  purchasing  books  with  discrimination  in-  large  masses. 
Perhaps  I  am  rather  deficient  in  it.  You  possess  it  in  an  uncommon 
degree.  I  think  you  would  buy  as  many  books  for  thirty  thousand 
dollars  as  I  should  for  fifty  thousand  dollars,  —  certainly,  for  forty 
thousand  dollars 


310  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

I  hope  I  am  not  selfish  in  urging  you  to  do  what  I  decline  doing 
myself.  I  will  only  add,  that  if  you  will  go,  I  will  do  more  for  the 
Library  at  home  than  I  have  hitherto  done,  in  order  that  your  absence 
may  be  less  severely  felt. 

AVhile  this  question  remained  unsettled,  no  time  was  lost  with 
regard  to  Mr.  Bates's  new  donations.  Mr.  Ticknor  immediately 
began  personally  to  collect,  from  men  distinguished  in  special 
departments,  lists  of  works  on  their  several  subjects,  which  ought 
to  be  on  the  shelves  of  a  great  library,  thus  getting  contributions 
of  much  consequence  from  such  men  as  Professors  Agassiz,  Bond, 
Cooke,  Felton,  Hayward,  Holmes,  Lovering,  Pierce,  and  Dr.  John 
Ware ;  from  Professor  W.  B.  Eogers  and  Judge  Curtis  ;  from 
Colonel  Thayer  of  the  Army  and  Captain  Goldsborough  of  tho 
Navy  ;  from  engineers  and  architects,  clergymen  and  men  of 
letters.  With  these,  and  with  aU  the  bibliographical  resources 
they  could  command,  Mr.  Ticknor  and  Mr.  Jewett  worked,  in 
Mr.  Ticknor's  library,  for  more  than  two  months,  Mr.  Jewett 
remaining  there  eight  hours  a  day,  preparing  the  lists  that  were 
to  be  sent  to  Mr.  Bates.  These  lists,  embracing  above  forty 
thousand  volumes,  were  successively  forwarded,  and  were  ap- 
proved by  Mr.  Bates,  who  had  in  these  matters  the  invaluable 
advice  of  his  distinguished  son-in-law,  M.  Silvain  Van  De  Weyer, 
Belgian  Minister  in  England,  a  scholar  eminent  for  his  practical 
knowledge  of  bibliography  and  letters. 

All  this,  however,  did  not  silence  the  conviction  that  some 
one  should  go  abroad,  for  the  interests  of  the  Library ;  and  al- 
though at  one  time  Mr.  Ticknor  decided  —  in  February,  1856  — 
that  he  could  not  make  the  exertion,  he  afterwards  reversed  this 
decision,  and  prepared  to  leave  home  that  summer.  His  dislike 
and  reluctance  to  going  were  very  positive.  He  had  already 
passed  seven  years  in  Europe,  and  anticipated  no  great  pleasure 
from  going  again,  and  at  his  age  it  was  disagreeable  to  him  to 
break  up  his  habits  and  pursuits ;  but  he  was  much  urged,  and 
in  consequence  of  an  illness  of  Mr.  Bates,  and  circumstances 
connected  with  a  book  agency  in  London,  he  saw  sufficient 
grounds  for  acquiescing.     He  still  felt  responsible  for  the  sue- 


^.65.]  THIRD  VISIT  TO  EUROPE.  311 

cess  of  the  Library,  for  which  his  fimJamental  plan  had  been 
adojited,  and  at  this  moment  he  had  some  fears  of  failure. 

The  account  of  this  trip  to  Europe,  in  its  other  aspects,  will 
appear  in  the  next  chapter,  but,  so  far  as  concerns  its  main  ob- 
ject, and  the  essential  work  done  in  the  course  of  it,  this  is  the 
place  for  its  story.  He  took  his  family  with  him,  and  was  ab- 
sent fifteen  months,  travelling  entirely  at  his  own  expense. 

Going  first  to  London,  he  remained  there  tliree  weeks,  seeing 
Mr.  Bates  constantly,  and  conferring  with  him  and  M.  Van  De 
"Weyer  on  the  interests  of  the  Library.  He  saw  and  investi- 
gated the  merits  of  the  bookseller  who  had  become  the  agent  of 
the  Library,  and  he,  personally,  purchased  some  liundreds  of 
volumes  for  its  shelves.  But,  after  having  come  to  a  full  under- 
standing with  Mr.  Bates,  he  hastened  to  the  Continent,  and 
stopped  first  at  Brussels,  once  an  important  book-mart,  but  not  at 
this  time  of  consequence  enough,  in  this  respect,  for  establishing 
an  agency. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Everett  he  gives  an  account  of  some  of  these 
earlier  experiences. 

To  Hon.  E.  Everett. 

Brussels,  July  30,  1856,  and  Bonn,  August  4. 
My  dear  Everett,  —  I  was  able  to  write  you  only  once  from 

London,  and  then  a  very  short  and  unsatisfactory  note 'U^'ith 

Mr.  Bates  ever}i;hing  was  done  in  the  promptest  and  easiest  manner  ; 
—  quiet,  after  his  fashion,  and  as  decisive  as  quiet."'^  He  agrees  to 
take  charge  of  all  purchases  under  our  past  orders  in  London  and 
Paris,  and  thinks  it  would  be  well  to  make  out  other  lists,  —  though 

*  In  a  letter  wi'itten  after  Mr,  Bates's  death,  Mr,  Ticknor  says  of  him :  "  To 
me  he  was  a  peculiar  man,  I  knew  him  familiarly  several  years  when  we  were 
both  young  ;  and  if,  after  he  established  himself  in  Europe,  I  saw  him  rarely, 
stiU,  whenever  we  met,  as  we  did  at  seven  or  eight  different  periods  on  one  or 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic,  I  always  found  him,  in  what  goes  to  make  up  the 
elements  of  personal  character,  substantially  the  same.  Indeed,  during  almost 
sixty  years  that  I  thus  knew  him,  he  was  less  changed  than  almost  anybody  I 

have  ever  been  acquainted  Avith The  reason,  I  suppose,  is,  that  he  was  a 

true  man,  faithful  always  to  his  own  convictions,  and  therefore  little  liable  to 
fluctuations  in  his  ways  and  character."  (From  a  rough  draft  corrected  and 
kept  by  ]\Ir.  Ticknor. ) 


312  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

I  suppose  others  can  hardly  be  sent  until  the  results  of  my  purchases 
are  known  ;  because,  as  you  mil  see,  I  am  buying  right  and  left, 
outside  of  all  the  lists  we  have  yet  prepared,  and  must,  therefore,  be 
buying  books  which  you  would  indicate  on  new  lists.  Still,  these 
fresh  lists  cannot  be  put  too  soon  in  preparation 

For  everything  relating  to  Germany,  including  the  North  of  Europe, 
and  for  all  that  relates  to  Italy,  Mr.  Bates  looks  to  me  and  to  the 
arrangements  I  shall  make.  For  this  purpose,  I  took  a  credit  from 
him  of  £  2,000,  a  sum  larger  than  I  shall  probably  use,  and  certainly 
enough  to  purchase  such  books,  not  on  any  of  our  lists,  as  I  may  find 
cheap  and  tempting,  and  to  establish  agencies  in  Leipzig,  Florence, 
and  perhaps  elsewhere  ;  beginning  the  purchases,  and  putting  the 
agents  in  communication  with  Mr.  Bates  for  subsequent  directions 
and  resources 

I  began  in  London,  buying,  perhaps,  four  hundred  volumes,  which 

you  will  easily  recognize To  this  city  —  Brussels  —  I  took  a 

letter  from  M.  Van  De  Weyer  for  Mons.  Alvin,  Conservateur  of  the 
Royal  Library,  who  at  once  placed  entirely  at  my  disposition  Mons. 
Charles  Ruelens,  a  scholar  full  of  bibliographical  and  literary  knowl- 
edge, who  is  on  the  staff  of  the  Library  to  purchase  its  books  all  over 
Europe.     Under  his  guidance  I  have  bought  about  seven  hundred  and 

fifty  volumes I  have  not  bought  a  book  here  or  in  London,  and 

shall  not,  I  suppose,  buy  one  anywhere,  that  I  would  sell  in  Boston 
for  twice  its  cost. 

The  books  I  have  bought  of  the  booksellers  here  are  all  sent  to  the 
Bibliotheque  Royale,  where  M.  Ruelens  has  charge  of  them.  He  will 
have  them  collated  ;  will  cause  such  of  them  as  may  need  it  to  be 
bound,  under  the  roof  of  the  Library,  at  the  prices  the  Library  pays 

for  its  own  binding,  and  will  then  despatch  them But  I  have 

obtained  from  the  Bibliotheque  Royale  about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
volumes  more,  which  they  can  let  us  have,  under  the  rules  imposed 
on  them  by  their  government,  only  in  the  way  of  exchange  for  other 
books 

After  leaving  here,  unless  I  find  Bunsen  at  Heidelberg,  which  I 
hardly  expect,  we  shall  go  to  Leipzig  without  much  stopping.  There 
I  have  already  begun  to  make  arrangements  for  the  purchase  of  books, 

and  for  an  agency 

Yours  always, 

George  Ticknor. 

Six  weeks  later  he  gives  a  further  account  of  his  work. 


M.  65.]  PURCHASES  FOR  THE  LIBRARY.  313 

To  Hon.  E.  Everett. 

Berlin,  September  20,  1856. 

My  dear  Everett,  — ....  I  have  been  in  Leipzig  three  times, 
and  estciblished  an  agency  there.  Dr.  Felix  Fliigel,  Vice-Consul  of 
the  United  States,  is  our  agent  and  Mr.  Bates's,  and  he  has  associated 
■with  himself  Dr.  Piltz,  editor  of  the  last  edition  of  the  "Conversations- 
Lexicon,"  and  Mr.  Paul  Fromel,  who  is  connected  with  Brockhaus's 
great  establishment.  The  two  first  are  known  to  Mr.  Jewett,  but  I 
was  not  aware  of  this  fact  till  after  we  were  nearly  through  with  our 
arrangements,  for  I  took  Dr.  Fliigel,  who  alone  is  responsible  to  us, 
on  the  advice  of  Dr.  Pertz,  the  admirable  head  of  the  great  library 
here  in  Berlin 

On  Mr,  Bates's  account  I  have  myself  bought,  in  Brussels  and 
Berlin,  a  little  short  of  two  thousand  volumes,  and  I  enclose  you  a 

list  of  them,  which  I  have  roughly  copied  from  the  bills I 

have,  however,  bought  none  but  by  the  advice  and  in  the  presence 
of  Mr.  Euelens  in  Brussels,  of  whom  I  wrote  you  amply,  and  in  the 
presence  of  Dr.  Karl  Brandes,  Gustos  of  the  library  here,  who,  like 

Mr.  Euelens,  buys  books  for  his  library  all  over  Europe I  am 

now  in  Berlin  for  the  second  time,  on  the  affairs  of  the  Library,  and 
the  purchases  I  have  made  here  are,  I  think,  quite  as  good  as  those  I 

made  at  Brussels Dr.  Pertz  was  a  student  in  Gottingen  Avhen 

we  were  studying  there,  and  knew  all  about  us  through  Eufstein, 
who  wrote  to  you  lately,  and  who  is  now  one  of  the  first  men  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Hanover,  being  the  head  of  its  ecclesiastical  establish- 
ment, and  every  way  a  most  respectable  person.  Dr.  Pertz  was  made 
librarian  of  the  King's  library,  Hanover,  (which  is  his  native  place.) 

after  the  death  of  our  old  friend  Feder English  is  as  much  the 

language  of  his  family  as  German,  and  being,  besides,  a  true,  sjnnpa- 
thizing,  faithful  German  of  the  old  sort,  there  is  nothing  he  has  not 
been  willing  to  do  for  me,  out  of  regard  for  America"^  and  the  Lyells, 
and  nothing  in  reason  that  he  ^\\\\  not  do  for  our  Library  hereafter, 
or  cause  to  be  done  by  his  assistants,  two  or  three  of  whom  have  been 
at  my  disposition  for  the  last  week 

I  beg  you  to  commend  me  to  the  Trustees,  when  you  meet,  and  tell 

them  that  I  hope  their  zeal  for  the  interests  of  the  Library  will  not 

abate.     I  do  not  intend  that  mine  shall. 

Yours  always  sincerely, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


*  Dr.  Pertz's  first  wife  was  from  Virginia,  his  second  wife  a  sister  of  Lady 
Lyell. 

VOL.   IL  14 


314  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

The  feeling  whicli  inspired  this  message  to  the  Trustees  ap- 
pears frequently  in  his  letters.  At  one  time,  when  Mr.  Everett 
had  been  under  a  mistaken  impression  that  Mr.  Tickuor  had 
felt  annoyed  about  some  want  of  information,  he  answers  :  "  In 
any  event,  you  will  understand  that  I  make  no  complaint  of 
anybody  that  has  done  as  much  for  the  Library  as  you  and  ]\fr. 
Jewett  have.  Let  me  add  that  I  am  much  gratified  with  the 
account  you  give  me  of  Mr.  Greenough's  important  services,  and 
of  the  '  very  assiduous  and  disinterested  manner '  in  which  he 
has  rendered  them.  I  expected  no  less  from  him,  and  thank 
him  as  heartily  for  what  he  has  done  as  if  I  were  to  be  per- 
sonally benefited  by  it,  I  feel,  too,  under  similar  obligations  to 
you  and  to  Mr.  Jewett,  and  to  aU  who  work  for  the  Library  in 
earnest  and  disinterestedly." 

During  these  visits  in  Berhn  Mr.  Ticknor  worked  with  Dr. 
Karl  Brandes  indefatigably,  staying  sometimes  so  late  in  the 
evening  in  the  booksellers'  shops  that  they  were  obliged  to  ob- 
tain special  permission  from  the  police  to  remain  and  to  go  home 
without  molestation.  Prague  and  Vienna  proved  unproductive, 
though  in  the  latter  place  he  had  efficient  aid  from  old  friends. 
He  writes :  "  The  trade  is  low  in  Austria ;  and  the  collections 
of  the  booksellers  are  either  of  the  commonest  books,  or  of  those 
that  are  old,  but  of  little  value.  I  went  round  with  Dr.  Seno- 
ner,  librarian  of  the  principal  scientific  library  in  the  city,  and 
I  had  help  from  Count  Thun,*  Minister  of  State,  who  has 
charge  of  the  public  libraries  throughout  the  Empire,  and  Baron 
Bellinghausen  and  Dr.  E.  AYolf,  the  principal  persons  in  the  Im- 
perial Library  :  all  these  are  old  friends  and  correspondents ;  but 
they  all  told  me  that  I  should  do  little,  and  it  so  turned  out." 

"  At  Venice,"  he  says  in  the  same  letter,  "  I  found  a  first-rate 
bookseller,  H.  E.  Miinster,  a  German.  He  was  anxious  to  pur- 
chase for  us,  and  Dr.  iSTamias,  Secretary  of  the  Institute  there, 
urged  me  to  employ  him.  But  Venice  is  so  out  of  the  way  of 
trade  that  I  did  not  like  to  venture.  We  shall,  however,  I  hope, 
profit  by  the  good-will  of  both  these  persons,  if  we  should  have 
any  occasion  hereafter  to  appeal  to  it." 

*  Count  Leo  von  Thun-Hohenstein.    See  Vol.  I.  p.  505. 


M  65.]  ESTABLISHING  AGENCIES.  315 

In  the  JSTorth  of  Italy,  therefore,  he  accomplished  little  beyond 
obtaining  the  transactions  of  learned  societies.  Meantime,  his 
correspondence  became  laborious,  for  he  was  obliged  to  keep  up 
active  communication  with  many  points  in  Europe,  as  well  as 
with  many  persons  at  home,  merely  on  the  business  of  the 
Library.  Consequently,  he  did  not,  as  before,  keep  a  journal 
of  his  daily  experiences,  and  his  more  private  correspondence 
also  suffered  in  consequence  of  his  constant  occupation. 

In  Florence  he  established  an  agency  in  the  autumn,  and  at- 
tended again  to  its  affairs  in  the  spring.  He  determined,  after 
some  preliminary  correspondence  with  an  old  acquaintance  in 
Florence,  Mr.  Sloane,  ''to  go  to  the  Baron  von  Reunion t,  Prus- 
sian ]\Iinister  in  Tuscany,  whom  Humboldt  at  Berlin  had  de- 
scribed to  me  as  a  historical  writer,  whose  works  he  valued  very 
highly,  and  whom  he  advised  me  strongly  to  visit  as  a  person 
who  would  receive  me  kindly,  and  give  me  the  best  of  literary 
help  about  Italian  affairs  and  books,  as  he  has  lived  in  Italy 
above  twenty  years."  Mr.  Ticknor  had  known  Baron  von  lieu- 
mont  in  Eome  twenty  years  before,  when  he  was  attache  to  the 
legation  of  Baron  Bunsen,  and  he  says  of  him,  "  in  all  sorts  of 
ways  he  has  turned  out  an  invaluable  friend."  On  his  recom- 
mendation, he  selected  Professor  Eugenio  Alberi  as  the  agent  of 
the  Library,  "  after  hearing  much  good  of  him  from  many  per- 
sons, and  among  the  rest  from  the  Grand  Duke  and  the  Marquis 
Gino  Capponi."  Thus  Mr.  Ticknor's  former  associations  with 
literary  and  distinguished  persons  gave  him  valuable  aid  in  his 
present  undertakings. 

In  Eome,  where  he  passed  the  winter,  he  had  no  need,  of 
course,  to  search  for  agents ;  but  he  busied  himself  in  buying 
books,  keeping  a  young  man  constantly  employed  in  seeking  out 
whatever  was  curious  and  cheap,  receiving  daily  reports  from 
him,  and  paying  him  day  by  day ;  also  going  himself  much  to 
libraries  and  bookshops,  superintending  the  packing  of  books  at 
his  own  lodgings,  and  really  working  hard  as  a  collector  for  the 
Library  at  home.  He  says  :  "  The  best  places  I  have  yet  found 
for  buying  books  are  Florence  and  Rome.  The  books  that  have 
been  thus  far  bought  by  me  in  Brussels,  Berhn,  and  Rome,  or 


-n 


316  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S57. 

under  my  directions  in  Leipzig  and  Florence,  have  been  bought 
at  above  forty  per  cent  under  the  fair,  regular  prices."  To  this 
should  be  added  the  fact,  that  on  Mr.  Ticknor's  purchases  the 
Library  was  saved  all  commissions.  On  the  2d  of  February  he 
closed  his  "  third  box  of  books  bought  in  Eome  ;  making  in 
the  three  boxes  seven  hundred  and  eighty-nine  volumes,  chiefly 
Italian,  but  a  good  many  French,  and  some  English,  etc.,  which 
have  cost,  binding  inclusive  (but  not  emballage),  five  hundred 
and  five  dollars." 
^  -  In  one  of  his  letters  to  Mr.  Everett,  from  Eome,  he  refers  to 
the  fact  that  five  sixths  of  the  books  then  in  the  Library  were  in 
the  English  language,  and  to  intimations  he  had  received  of  a 
feeling  among  some  persons  in  favor  of  making  the  Library  exclu- 
sively English.  After  alluding  to  his  original  anxiety  to  have  a 
popular  circulating  library,  with  many  copies  of  many  popular 
books,  he  goes  on  :  — 

I  do  not,  indeed,  want  for  my  personal  convenience  any  library  at 
all,  except  my  own,  but  I  should  be  ashamed  of  myself,  if,  in  working 
for  such  an  institution  as  our  Public  Library,  I  could  overlook  the 
claims  of  the  poor  young  men,  and  others  who  are  not  able  to  buy  val- 
uable, costly,  and  even  rare  books,  in  foreign  languages,  which  they 
need  in  studies  important  to  them  and  the  public.  I  never  did  neg- 
lect their  claims  in  relation  to  my  own  inconsiderable  library,  and 
why  should  I  do  it  in  relation  to  a  large  public  library  1  Nor  do  I 
see  how  anybody  who  may  have  a  collection  of  rare  and  valuable 
books  in  a  foreign  language,  —  Sanscrit,  if  you  please,  like  the  late 
Mr.  Wales's,  or  little  collections  in  Spanish  or  Portuguese,  like  mine, 
— can  find  a  proper  place  for  them  in  any  such  almost  wholly  English 
library,  with  whose  general  plan  such  collections  would  be  quite  out 
of  keeping,  as  well  as  with  the  common  course  of  its  purchase  and 
administration.  I  have  never  apprehended  that  we  were  making  such 
a  library,  nor  do  I  suppose  so  now  ;  but  I  see  from  your  letter  that 
there  are  persons  who  would  prefer  it,  —  I  mean  persons  who  would 
prefer  to  keep  our  Public  Library  almost  wholly  an  English  one. 

In  Paris  he  devoted  a  considerable  part  of  every  day  to  the 
affairs  of  the  Library,  and  in  London  he  passed  a  month  in  the 
summer  of  1857,  during  which  he  completed  the  adjustment  of 


^.66.]  OPENING   OF  THE  "LOWER  HALL."  317 

everything  with  j\Ir.  Bates  to  his  satisfaction.  Finally,  he  con- 
cluded, by  correspondence,  the  settlements  with  agents  on  the 
Continent,  and  finished  the  last  of  this  work  on  the  day  before 
embarking  for  home,  having  remained  two  months  after  his  wife 
and  daughter  had  returned,  in  order  that  he  might  leave  nothing 
incomplete,  or  unsatisfactorily  adjusted. 

For  all  his  exertions  abroad  he  received  very  gratifying  tes- 
timonials from  the  Trustees,  on  his  arrival  at  home,  the  votes 
and  reports  on  the  subject  being  contained  in  the  Fifth  Annual 
Eeport. 

After  his  return  Mr.  Ticknor  wished  if  possible  to  avoid  en- 
tering again  into  the  active  operations  of  the  Library,  hoping  that 
his  friends  Mr.  Everett  and  Mr.  Greenough,  with  the  assistance 
of  Mr.  Jewett,  could  secure  the  well-being  of  the  institution  with- 
out more  than  his  presence  and  support  in  the  Board ;  but  he 
could  not  be  released,  and  therefore  accepted  the  position  of 
chairman  of  the  committee  for  the  removal  of  the  books  to  the 
new  Library  building. 

This  might,  at  first  sight,  seem  to  imply  only  a  supervision  of 
mechanical  work,  but  it  involved  much.  more.  It  involved,  at 
one  point,  the  assertion  of  the  principle  which,  in  Mr.  Ticknor's 
mind,  lay  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole  special  character  of  the 
institution.  A  separate  and  accessible  hall  and  library-room  had 
been  prepared,  on  the  lower  floor  of  the  new  building,  for  the 
popular  part  of  the  collection  of  books,  by  Mr.  Ticknor's  sugges- 
tion when  he  was  on  the  Commission  for  the  buildincr.  He  now 
urged  the  preparation  of  a  separate  index  to  the  books  of  this 
departmenc,  to  be  furnished  before  a  complete  catalogue  of  the 
whole  mass  of  books  could  be  got  ready.  This  interfered  with 
the  more  striking  idea  of  a  large  and  imposing  volume,  exhibit- 
ing to  the  public  the  Avhole  wealth  of  the  Library  in  one  cata- 
logue. Mr.  Ticknor,  however,  prevailed,  and  the  popular  collec- 
tion, with  its  separate  rooms  and  its  separate  index,  being  ready 
and  open  to  the  public  more  than  a  year  before  the  rest  could 
be  opened,*  was  very  welcome,  and  so  eagerly  used  that  the 

.  *  December  20,  1858.  The  reading-room,  with  periodicals,  had  been  opened 
September  17. 


318  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1858. 

question  of  the  success  of  the  Free  Lending  Library,  for  the  less 
favored  classes,  was  settled  in  a  way  never  to  be  shaken  again. 

Mr.  Ticknor  felt  that  a  great  deal  of  good  had  been  done  in 
the  humble  rooms  in  Mason  Street ;  for  the  principles  on  which 
a  public  library  might  be  made  to  co-operate  in  the  education 
of  a  city  had  been  substantially  settled.  He  now  induced  the 
Trustees  to  make  the  Lower-Hall  collection  as  attractive  as  pos- 
sible, by  adding  to  the  books  brought  from  ^lason  Street  such 
English  and  American  books  as  were  still  desirable,  so  as  to  open 
•with  about  fourteen  thousand  agreeable  and  useful  volumes  in 
the  English  language,  and  a  thousand  more  in  the  other  modern 
languages ;  and  then,  with  some  little  anxiety,  he  watched  the 
operations  on  the  day  of  opening.  The  practical  results  justified 
the  theory  of  the  institution  in  the  most  gratifying  manner,  and 
Mr.  Ticknor  said  that,  after  witnessing  the  giving  out  of  the  books 
till  eight  in  the  evening,  without  seeing  a  moment's  trouble  or 
confusion,  he  went  home  feeling  as  if  he  had  nothing  more  to  do 
so  far  as  this,  in  his  view  the  most  important,  part  of  the  insti- 
tution was  concerned. 

Troubles  there  were  still,  but  of  other  kinds ;  and,  although  he 
was  a  trifle  disappointed  by  the  result  of  an  experiment  he  tried 
in  1860,  to  test  the  popular  disposition  for  reading  useful  books,* 
he  did  not  lose  faith  in  his  theory  that,  the  taste  for  reading  once 
formed,  the  standard  of  that  taste  would  rise.  He  would  have 
rejoiced  in  the  absolute  proof  produced,  since  1873,  of  the  steady 
gain  in  the  proportion  of  useful  books  taken  from  the  Library, 
after  increased  facilities  had  been  afforded  for  their  selection,  by 
the  admirable  annotated  Catalogue  of  works  of  the  higher  class 
prepared  by  Mr.  Winsor.t 

*  He  gave  the  Library  fifty  copies  of  Miss  Nightingale's  "  Notes  on  Nursing  " ; 
twenty  copies  of  Smiles's  "Self  Help"  ;  twenty  copies  of  Everett's  "Life  of 
Washington  "  ;  ten  copies  of  the  "  Life  of  Amos  Lawrence,"  a  merchant  of  Bos- 
ton; twelve  copies  of  the  "  Teacher's  Assistant,"  and  some  others.  For  a  time 
many  of  these  kept  well  in  circulation,  especially  Miss  Nightingale's  excellent 
little  book  ;  but  at  the  end  of  six  months  the  demand  for  them  had  substantially 
ceased. 

t  The  percentage  of  increased  demand  for  works  of  travel,  biography,  etc., 
over  the  increase  of  general  circulation,  has  continued  to  be  quite  remarkable 
for  more  than  two  years,  since  the  publication  of  this  valuable  Catalogue. 


M.  67.]  GIFTS  TO  THE  LIBRARY.  319 

Being  uow  at  ease  about  tliat  wliicli  lie  considered  as  not  only 
the  first,  but,  in  our  social  condition,  the  most  valuable  part  of 
the  Library,  Mr.  Ticknor  began  to  give  proof  that  his  instincts 
as  a  scholar  were  only  held  in  abeyance  by  his  judgment  as  a 
citizen. 

In  April,  1860,  he  gave  to  the  Library  2,400  volumes  of  works 
of  such  a  high  character  that  he  made  it  a  condition  that  two 
thousand  of  them  should  not  circulate,  and  in  October  of  the 
same  year  he  presented  to  it  one  hundred  and  forty-three  vol- 
umes, forming  a  special  collection  on  Moliere,  with  similar  restric- 
tions ;  while  in  October,  1864,  he  gave  one  hundred  and  sixty 
volumes  of  Provengal  literature,  under  stiU  more  stringent  con- 
ditions. In  1861,  also,  being  consulted  as  to  the  conditions  to 
be  attached  to  a  bequest  of  money  to  the  Library,  he  reverted 
to  an  idea,  entertained  by  him  long  before,  which  was  adopted, 
and  the  income  was  required  to  be  expended  for  books,  none  of 
which  should  have  been  published  less  than  five  years. 

Finally,  by  his  last  will  he  gave  to  this  institution,  which  he 
had  cherished  and  had  done  aU  in  his  power  to  perfect,  the  in- 
valuable collection  of  Spanish  books,  to  the  formation  of  which 
he  had  devoted  so  much  of  his  time  and  his  fortune.  Of  these, 
by  his  own  direction,  not  a  volume  is  to  be  allowed  to  leave  the 
Library  building. 

His  desire  to  put  culture  within  the  reach  of  those  who  are 
least  apt  to  seek  it  and  least  able  to  acquire  it,  and  his  belief 
that  they  could  be  trusted  to  use  carefully  what  was  bestowed 
generously,  this  desire  and  this  belief  inspired  his  action  for  the 
Library  for  the  first  six  or  eight  years  of  its  development ;  but 
when  the  principles  he  thus  contended  for  were  vindicated  by 
experience,  and  put  beyond  danger,  he  turned  to  work  for  the 
more  scholarly  and  studious  class,  of  which  he  himself  was  a 
member. 

He  hoped  that  the  principle  of  funding  donations  of  money, 
and  the  example  of  giving  collections  of  works  on  special  sub- 
jects, would  lead  to  further  gifts  of  both  kinds ;  and  he  trusted 
that  the  disinterested  and  broad  views  for  the  administration  of 
the  Library,  which  had  been  estabHshed  and  continued  during 


"1 


^ 


J 


320  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR. 

the  fourteen  years  of  liis  connection  with  it,  would  prevail  in 
future,  so  that  public  confidence  might  in  every  way  be  secured. 
That  this  institution  should  be  administered  for  the  good  of  the 
wdiole  community,  earnestly  inviting  the  less  favored,  yet  remem- 
bering that  the  researches  in  learning  and  science  made  by  the 
less  numerous  may  s^^read  widest,  and  do  most  good  in  the  end ; 
that  its  officers  and  employes  might  always  be  selected  for  their 
efficiency  and  fidelity ;  and  that  its  Trustees  might  always  be 
men  who  know  what  such  a  library  should  be  and  do,  unin- 
fluenced by  politics  or  sectarian  views,  —  these  were  his  earnest 
wishes  in  all  liis  latter  years.  He  felt  that  if  the  aliairs  of  the 
Library  were  ever  administered  in  any  other  spirit,  or  for  any 
other  purpose,  than  to  promote  the  best  culture  of  the  whole 
mass  of  our  people,  it  would  decay  and  fail,  ceasing  to  accom- 
j^lish  its  true  object. 

On  the  death  of  Mr.  Everett  he  was  elected  by  the  Trustees 
President  of  their  Board ;  but  a  year  afterwards  he  resigned  that 
place,  leaving  it  to  be  filled  by  his  friend,  Mr.  Greenough,  who 
for  ten  years  had  co-operated  with  him  and  Mr.  Everett  in 
every  effort  for  the  wise  advancement  of  the  Library.*  Mr.  Tick- 
nor  also  declined  to  be  re-elected  Trustee,  and  thus  retired,  after 
fourteen  years  of  zealous  labor,  having  carefully,  during  the  last 
months,  brought  to  completion  those  portions  of  the  work  to 
which  he  had  been  more  especially  pledged. 

*  Mr.  William  W.  Greenougli  is  still  President  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Library. 


VOYAGE  TO  EUROPE.  321 


CHAPTEE    XVI. 

Visit  to  Europe  for  the  Affairs  of  the  Boston  Public  Library.  —  London, 
Brussels,  Dresden,  Berlin,  and  Vienna.  —  Verona.  —  Milan.  —  Let- 
ters to  Mr.  Frescott,  Mr.  Everett,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  IV.  S.  Dexter,  and 
Airs.  Ticknor. 

THE  motives  and  causes  wliicli  led  Mr.  Ticknor  to  decide  on 
a  third  visit  to  Europe  have  been  set  forth,  as  well  as  the 
nature  of  the  work  he  did  during  the  thirteen  months  it  covered. 
The  marriage  of  his  younger  daughter  to  Mr.  AVilUam  Sohier 
Dexter,  which  took  place  in  May,  1856,  preceded  his  departure 
by  a  few  weeks,  and  he  sailed  on  the  1 8th  of  June,  accompanied 
by  Mrs.  Ticknor,  with  their  eldest  daughter  and  a  niece.  The 
facihties  for  every  mode  of  travelHng  had  been  improving  with 
extraordinary  rapidity  in  the  twenty  years  since  his  last  visit, 
and  these  introduced  novelty  and  comfort,  beyond  his  expecta- 
tions, into  this  journey.  The  steamer  voyage  shortened  the 
miseries  of  the  sea,  which,  for  the  first  time,  Mr.  Ticknor  escaped 
in  great  measure  ;  and  at  Liverpool,  before  they  left  the  deck  of 
the  steamer,  letters  of  welcome  and  invitations  were  placed  in 
his  hands,  casting  a  most  delightful  atmosjphere  of  genial  feeling 
over  the  arrival. 

This  warm  greeting  was  multiplied  and  continued  wherever 
they  went ;  the  hands  of  old  friends  and  new  were  extended  to 
receive  them  at  every  point.  In  London  a  charming  house  in 
Knightsbridge  was  placed  at  their  disposal  —  with  servants  and 
all  appliances  —  in  the  absence  of  its  owners,  ]\[r.  and  Mrs. 
Edward  Twisleton,*  and  from  thence  Mr.  Ticknor  wrote  as  fol- 
lows :  — 

*  Hon.  Edward  Twisleton,  a  man  of  remarkable  cultivation,  much  beloved 
and  respected  in  the  best  society  of  England,  had  recently  married  a  favorite 
niece  of  Mrs.  Ticknor,  Miss  Ellen  Dwight.     Mr.  Ticknor,  too,  was  very  fond 

14*  TJ 


322  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

To  W.  H.  Prescott. 

London,  July  17,  1856. 

My  dear  William,  —  You  liave  heard,  I  dare  say,  of  our  safe  ar- 
rival, and  perhaps  something  more  ;  for  though  I  have  had  time  to 
write  only  one  letter,  —  it  was  to  William  Dexter,  —  enough  has  been 
written  by  the  party  to  tell  all  that  anybody  can  desire  to  know  about 
us. 

When  the  cars  stopped,  the  first  thing  I  saw  was  Lady  Ly ell's 
charming  face  on  the  platform,  to  welcome  us,  and  during  the  eighteen 
days  that  have  followed  since,  we  have  had  nothing  but  kindness  and 
hospitality.  Our  old  friends,  adding  to  them  those  with  whom  I 
have  had  intercourse  without  personally  knowing  them,  have  filled 
up  our  whole  time.  Five  invitations  were  Avaiting  for  us  when  we 
arrived.^  Lord  Stanhope  came  the  next  morning,  immediately  after 
breakfast,  and  I  gave  him  your  letter.t  Stirling  came  in  the  afternoon, 
and  so  it  has  gone  on  ever  since.  After  to-morrow  I  have  declined 
all  invitations,  and  begin  to  make  my  arrangements  for  Brussels,  for 
which  we  shall  set  out  as  soon  as  we  can  get  ready. 

Your  friends  here  are  generally  well,  and  remember  you  with  sin- 
cere and  affectionate  interest,  asking  constantly  whether  you  will  not 
come  again  soon,  to  which  I  always  answer  in  such  a  way  as  to  put 
the  burthen  upon  Susan,  who,  I  suppose,  will  bear  it  contentedly 
rather  than  lose  you.  I  delivered  all  your  letters  ;  most  of  them, 
however,  I  could  not  find  time  to  deliver  until  after  I  had  filled  up 
my  days  with  engagements,  which  we  did  in  about  four  or  five  days 

after  our  arrival The  Ellesmeres,  the  Laboucheres,J  and  Ford 

have  been  very  kind,  and  invited  us  to  dine,  but  we  could  not  accept. 
I  dined  at  the  Duke  of  Argyll's,  with  a  very  brilliant  party,  and  we 
talked  much  of  you  ;  but  Anna  was  in  Kent,  on  a  visit  to  the  Mild- 

of  Mrs.  Twisleton,  and,  before  there  had  been  any  question  of  this  marriage, 
Mr.  Twisleton  had  been  much  liked  by  him  and  all  his  family.  These  interest- 
ing and  highly  valued  persons  are  now  dead,  and  their  loss  has  been  deeply  felt 
on  either  side  of  the  ocean,  for  both  had  made  themselves  loved  in  tlie  new 
circles  they  had  entered  by  their  marriage. 

*  In  the  letter  to  W.  S.  Dexter  of  July  4,  mentioned  above,  he  says,  after 
being  four  days  in  London  :  "  Thus  far  I  am  in  for  eight  dinners  and  four 
breakfasts,  all  of  which  promise  to  be  very  agreeable,  but  will  make  heavy 
drafts  on  my  resources  of  all  sorts,  and  will  probably  do  me  up.  But  vorjne  la 
galere;  for  I  have  always  thought  a  regular  London  life  little  better  than  that 
of  a  galley-slave." 

t  Mentioned  before  as  Lord  Mahon.     See  ante,  p.  259. 

X  See  Vol.  I.  p.  408. 


iE.  65.]  MR.   MAC  AULA  Y.  323 

mays  and  Stanhopes,  where  I  was  very  glad  to  have  her  go  for  refresh- 
ment for  a  few  days,  and  so  missed  this  pleasure 

Macaulay  is  the  lion.  He  has  been  asked  to  meet  us  seven  times, 
so  that  it  has  got  to  be  a  sort  of  joke.  But  he  is  very  agreeable,  not 
in  perfectly  good  health,  and  not,  I  imagine,  talking  so  much  for  effect 
as  he  used  to,  or  claiming  so  large  a  portion  of  the  table's  attention  ; 
but  well  enough  to  be  out  a  great  deal  in  the  evenings,  and  with  fresh 
spirits.  I  dined  with  him  and  Lord  John,  at  Richmond  at  Lord  Lans- 
downe's,  and  at  the  Duke  of  Argyll's.  The  rest  were  breakfiists,  at 
Lord  Stanhope's^  Milman's,"  Van  De  Weyer's,  etc.,  and  at  his  own 
house.  He  lives  in  a  beautiful  villa,  with  a  rich,  large,  and  brilliant 
lawn  behind  it,  keeps  a  carriage,  and  —  as  he  told  us  —  keeps  four 
men-servants,  including  his  coachman,  and  lives  altogether  in  elegant 
style  for  a  man  of  letters 

We  live,  you  know,  in  Twisleton's  house.  It  is  a  very  nice  one, 
with  four  or  five  thousand  volumes  of  first-rate  books,  in  rich,  full 
binding,  scattered  through  its  three  principal  rooms.  It  looks  on 
Hyde  Park  in  front,  and  has  a  series  of  gardens  behind,  so  that  few 
houses  are  more  pleasantly  situated.  It  is,  too,  filled  with  an  abun- 
dance of  rich  furniture  d  VAnglaise.  The  Lewises  —  Sir  George  and 
Lady  Theresa  ^  —  are  near  neighbors,  and  have  been  most  abundant 
in  kindness.  We  have  breakfasted,  lunched,  and  dined  with  them, 
the  last  being  last  evening,  when  we  had  Lord  and  Lady  Clarendon, 
Lord  Harrowby,  Lord  John  Russell,  Frederick  Peel ;  and  a  most 
charming,  cheerful,  free  time  we  made  of  it  till  near  midnight.  I 
talked  a  good  deal  with  Lord  Clarendon  and  Lord  Harrowby,  as  well 
as  with  Cardwell  and  Sir  George,  about  America,  —  three  of  them 
being  of  the  Ministry,  —  and  found,  as  I  have  uniformly  found,  a 
great  desire  to  keep  at  peace  with  us 

Thackeray  has  been  to  see  us  a  good  deal,  but  he  is  very  poorly, 

and  has  troubles  that  may  wear  him  out Kenyon,  too,  is  very 

ill  with  asthma,  at  the  Isle  of  Wight,  where  he  has  taken  a  beautiful 
place,  and  on  finding  himself  a  little  better  asked  us  to  come  and  see 
him  for  as  long  as  we  could  stay.  But  it  is  not  possible,  or  we  should 
certainly  go.  Colonel  Harcourt  asked  us,  also,  to  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
and  at  one  moment  I  thought  we  might  combine  the  two  ;  but  I  must 
not  be  too  late  on  the  Continent,  or  my  plans  will  be  all  spoiled. 
Stirling  invites  us  to  Keir,  when  we  come  back,  and  I  shall  try  to  go 
if  I  can.  A  dinner  at  his  house  in  town  was  as  recherche  as  anything 
that  has  happened  to  me  of  the  sort  ;  and  his  house,  filled  with  curious 

*  See  Vol.  I.  p.  407,  note,  and  ante,  p.  ISO. 


324  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 


books,  old  silver,  and  ohjets  d'art,  is  quite  marvellous,  —  nearly  all 
collected,  he  says,  since  you  were  here. 

The  breakfasts  are  very  formidable.     They  have  become  dinners  in 

disguise But  they  are  agreeable.     Old  Lord  Lansdowne  says 

he  enjoys  them  more  than  any  other  form  of  society,  and  I  have  met 
him  at  them  twice.  Indeed,  he  goes  out  a  great  deal,  and  entertains 
as  much  as  ever ;  large  parties  in  Berkeley  Square,  and  small  ones  at 
Richmond.  He  seems  to  me  more  amiable  and  agreeable  than  ever, 
and  enjoys  a  green  old  age,  surrounded  with  the  respect  of  all,  even 
of  those  most  opposed  to  him  in  politics.  I  have  met  him  as  often  as 
anybody,  except  Macaulay,  and  am  to  meet  him  again  to-day. 

To-morrow  is  our  last  day  for  society.  We  breakfast  with  the  Mil- 
mans',  lunch  at  Evelvn  Denison's  *  —  who  has  become  a  man  of  much 

7.1/  7 

political  consequence,  and  lives  in  a  grand  house  on  Carleton  Terrace, 
—  and  we  dine  at  Mr.  T.  Baring's.  I  am  glad  it  is  the  last  day.  I 
never  stood  the  exigencies  of  London  society  well,  and  I  am  so  old 
that  I  am  quite  done  up  with  the  work  now.  And  yet  this  is  nothing 
to  what  they  do  themselves. 

Lord  Clarendon,  yesterday,  gave  me  the  account  of  his  mode  of  life 
for  the  last  three  years,  including  the  war  with  Russia  and  the  Con- 
ferences at  Paris "  But,"  I  said,  "  do  you  never  give  yourself  a 

holiday  1 "  "  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  I  gave  myself  one  holiday  at  Paris, 
and  went  to  a  great  discussion  and  showy  occasion  at  the  Listitute, 
but  the  next  time  I  do  it  I  will  take  chloroform."  ....  He  has 
great  spirits,  and  laughed  and  frolicked  in  the  gayest  manner,  but 
looks  much  worn  and  very  thin.  On  my  telling  him  that  I  thought 
he  would  do  better  if  he  were  to  take  his  hardest  work  in  the  morning, 
when  he  is  refreshed  by  sleep,  he  admitted  it,  but  added,  "  I  can  get 
more  out  of  myself,  under  this  nervous,  unnatural  excitement,  than  I 
can  in  a  more  regular  life ;  and  if  it  does  wear  me  out  sooner,  that  is 
no  matter,  the  work  must  be  done."  .... 

But  it  is  one  o'clock  at  night,  and  I  am  imitating  the  great  man  in 

my  small  way  without  thinking  of  it.     I  will  therefore  stop,  only 

adding  my  love  to  Susan  and  Elizabeth  and  all  about  you 

Yours  always, 

^      G.  T. 

To  Hon.  E.  Everett. 

London,  July  18,  1856. 
My  dear  Everett,  —  Thank  you  for  your  agreeable  note  of  the 
2d  inst.     I  am  very  glad  to  hear  such  good  news  of  the  Library,  and 

*  See  Vol.  L  p.  408,  note. 


JE.  65.]  LETTERS  TO  MR.   EVERETT.  325 

that  Mr.  Greenough  is  in  your  Board.  I  think  you  will  find  him  a 
very  efficient  person.  Things  go  on  equally  well  here.  Many  books, 
as  you  are  aware,  have  been  despatched  from  Paris,  and  a  consider- 
able number  will  be  sent  by  the  steamer  that  takes  this.  Others  will 
follow 

Thus  far  my  time  has  been  much  consumed  by  society,  a  good  deal 
more  than  I  intended  it  should  be.  But  it  has  been  inevitable,  and 
after  to-day  we  have  refused  all  invitations,  and  I  go  seriously  to 
work  to  finish  the  arrangements  for  the  Library,  and  begin  my  prepa- 
rations for  the  Continent,  for  which  I  hope  to  be  ofi'  in  a  week. 

I  delivered  your  letter  to  Mr.  Macaulay,  and  he  has  been  extremely 
kind.  I  breakfasted  with  him  at  once,  in  his  beautiful  villa,  meeting 
Panizzi,  Senior,  Van  De  Weyer,  Lord  Lansdowne,  and  three  or  four 

more  ;  and  I  have  met  him  five  or  six  times  since So  you  see 

he  is  still  the  lion  he  was  when  you  w^ere  here.  But  he  is  not,  from 
what  I  hear,  so  exigeant  in  conversation.  At  any  rate  he  is  very 
agreeable,  and  people  had  rather  listen  to  him  than  talk  themselves. 
Like  everybody  else,  I  have  been  astonished  at  the  resources  of  his 
memory.  They  are  all  but  fabulous.  He  wants  to  know  w^hen  you 
are  coming  again  ;  and  spoke  to  me  of  you,  as  have  Lord  LansdoAvne, 
Lord  Palmerston,  Lord  Clarendon,  and  all  your  old  friends,  with 
great  interest,  some  with  great  aff'ection. 

I  have  seen  most  of  the  members  of  the  government,  and  talked 
wdth  them  about  our  American  affairs.  They  certainly  show  no  de- 
sire to  get  into  a  quarrel  with  us.  But  John  Bull  is  no  doubt  dis- 
satisfied, and  doubtful  of  the  future.  He  thinks  we  are  ill  disposed 
towards  him,  that  there  is  no  use  in  making  more  concessions,  and 
that,  as  we  are  growing  stronger  and  more  formidable,  it  is  as  well  to 
meet  the  trial  soon,  as  later.  Those  in  power,  however,  seem  to  me 
to  wish  to  put  it  off  as  long  as  they  can."^  .... 

To  Hon.  Edward  Everett. 

Brussels,  July  30, 1856. 

....  I  began  this  letter  at  its  date,  at  Brussels,  but  I  was  much 
crowded  with  work  then,  and  now  I  finish  it  at  Bonn.t ....  "Welcker 
is  here  still  fresh  and  active,  and  remembering  you  with  great  kind- 
ness.    I  find  Brandes  too,  but  nobody  else  surviving  of  the  old  time  ; 

*  There  were  complaints  about  enlistments  in  the  United  States  during  the 
Crimean  War.     See  ante,  p.  295. 
+  Parts  of  this  letter  were  given  in  the  preceding  chapter. 


326  LIFE  OF  GEOUGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

Mebuhr,  Schlegel,  and  the  rest  are  all  gone.  "  Old,  Master  Shallow, 
old,"  I  feel  it.  I  felt  it,  too,  in  London,  though  the  survivors  there 
were  numerous,  and  fresh  acquaintance  were  added,  in  no  small  pro- 
portion, to  the  old 

I  saw  your  friend.  Sir  Henry  Holland,  and  breakfasted  with  him. 
I  need  not  tell  you  that  he  is  coming  to  make  you  a  visit,  but  you 
may  be  glad  to  know  that  he  is  unchanged,  and  as  active  as  ever. 
He  says  he  intends  to  go  and  see  Mr.  Buchanan.  I  hope  he  will.  It 
may  do  good  to  have  the  relations  they  stood  in  maintained,  if  Bu- 
chanan becomes  President,  as  I  suppose  he  will 

We  have,  as  you  will  infer  from  what  I  have  said,  rather  than  from 
any  details  I  have  given,  been  very  busy  since  I  saw  you  last.  In- 
deed, it  seems  incredible,  that  we  have  been  absent  from  home  only 
seven  weeks,  and  yet  have  come  so  far,  and  done  so  much.  London 
life  seems  to  me  to  have  become  more  opj^ressive  than  it  ever  was. 
The  breakfasts,  that  used  to  be  modest  reunions  of  half  a  dozen,  with 
a  dish  or  two  of  cold  meat,  are  now  dinners  in  disguise,  for  fourteen 
to  sixteen  persons,  with  three  or  four  courses  of  hot  meats.  Once  we 
had  wine.  The  lunches  are  much  the  same,  with  puddings,  etc., 
added,  and  several  sorts  of  wine  ;  and  the  dinners  begin  at  a  quarter 
to  half  past  eight,  and  last  till  near  eleven.  Twice,  spiced  wines  were 
handed  round  with  the  meats,  which  I  never  saw  before,  and  did  not 
find  nearly  so  savory  as  my  neighbors  did.  Everything,  in  short, 
announced  —  even  in  the  same  houses  —  an  advance  of  luxury,  which 
can  bode  no  good  to  any  people.     But  the  tide  cannot  be  resisted. 

I  am  not  sure  whether  I  told  you,  in  my  note  from  London,  that  I 
found  Hallam  much  broken  in  strength,  and  with  dangerous  troubles. 
He  was,  however,  very  bright,  and  talked  as  fast  as  ever.  He  went 
to  the  country  two  or  three  days  after  we  reached  London,  to  stay 
with  his  daughter,  who,  as  I  heard,  makes  his  declining  years  very 
happy.  He  inquired  most  kindly  after  you,  and  desired  to  be  remem- 
bered to  you.  I  think  he  felt  it  to  be  very  doubtful  whether  he  shall 
see  me  next  spring,  if  I  then  go  to  England  again.  Certainly  I  did 
as  I  parted  from  him,  and  he  said,  "  I  am  very  old,"  and  his  eye  spoke 
more  than  his  words. 

I  am  writing  now  just  as  we  set  off.  ...  .  Addio.  Write  me  how 
the  Presidential  canvass  goes  on,  and  what  is  the  prospect  of  things 
generally. 

In  a  letter  to  Mr.  George  T.  Curtis,  written  two  weeks  later, 
Mr.  Ticknor  tells  the  following  anecdote  :  — 


M.  65.]  MR.   CRAMPTON.  327 

The  day  but  one  before  we  left  London,  we  accepted  an  invitation 
given  in  an  uncommonly  kind  manner  two  days  earlier,  to  dine  at 

Lord   Clarendon's Just  before  dinner  was   announced.  Lord 

Clarendon  came  up  to  me  and  said,  with  rather  a  peculiar  manner, 
that  attracted  my  attention  at  once,  "  Here  is  a  gentleman  who  wishes 
to  be  introduced  to  vou.  He  has  been  a  jjood  deal  in  the  United 
States,  and  knows  all  about  you,  but  has  never  seen  you  ;  and  yet  he 
is  a  pretty  notorious  man,  —  it  is  Mr.  Crampton,"  —  and  then  he  burst 
into  a  very  hearty  laugh,  for  which  he  is  somewhat  famous,  and  was 
joined  by  Sir  Charles  Wood,  and  one  or  two  people  near  us,  who  en- 
joyed the  joke  to  the  fuU."^  I  found  Mr.  Crampton  very  agreeable, 
and  immediately  noticed  his  great  resemblance  to  his  father,  as  I 
knew  Sir  Philip  in  1835.  "Yes,"  said  a  person  to  whom  I  mentioned 
it,  "  they  still  look  so  much  alike  that  we  call  them  the  twins."  .... 
The  Ministry  were,  no  doubt,  partly  responsible  for  the  mistakes 
about  the  enlistment  last  summer,  —  more,  perhaps,  than  they  can 
well  admit.  They  were  too  much  engrossed  by  the  Kussian  war,  and 
the  worrying  arrangements  for  the  peace  before  the  negotiations  be- 
gan, to  be  able  to  give  the  American  difficulty  the  degree  of  attention 
it  needed.  So  I  think  Crampton  will  get  a  place  and  be  contented 
with  it. 

To  Mrs.  William  S.  Dexter. 

Heidelberg,  August  8,  1856. 

Dearest  Lizzie,  —  I  hardly  know  what  I  can  write  to  you,  your 
mother  and  Anna  have  written  so  much,  except  to  renew  to  you 
expressions  of  my  affection,  which  you  feel  as  sure  of  without  their 
repetition  as  with  it.  But  I  must  write  something ;  it  is  a  want  I 
feel  to  have  intercourse  with  you.  Only  last  night  I  looked  over  to 
the  other  side  of  the  table,  thinking  to  see  you  there  ;  so  entirely  have 
you  kept  your  place  in  my  thoughts.  And  thus  I  miss  you  con- 
stantly. Give  my  love  to  your  husband,  and  tell  him  I  count  upon 
his  making  up  a  great  deal  of  my  loss  to  me,  since  I  give  him  so  much 
of  what  is  important  and  dear  to  my  affections. 

As  I  travel  about  in  places  more  or  less  familiar  to  me,  —  because 

*  Mr.  Crampton  had  been  recently  recalled  from  Washington,  where  he  was 
British  Minister,  on  complaints  of  our  government.  I\Ir.  Ticknor  says  else- 
where :  "  Thackeray,  who  has  a  strong  personal  regard  for  him,  was  outrageous 
on  the  matter,  and  cursed  the  Ministry  by  all  his  gods  for  making  him,  as  he 
said,  their  scape-goat,"  As  Mr.  Ticknor  expected,  he  was  soon  sent  Minister 
to  Hanover,  and  afterwards  to  St.  Petersburg  and  INIadrid. 


328  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

I  have  been  in  tliem  at  least  twice  before,  and  in  some  cases  three 
times,  —  I  feel  a  good  deal  as  a  professor  emeritus  does,  who  keeps 
the  title,  but  does  none  of  the  work  of  his  place.  I  call  myself  a 
traveller,  but  fulfil  little  of  a  traveller  s  duty 

I  enjoy,  however,  seeing  my  old  friends  very  much.  Count  Arriva- 
bene,  in  his  fine  old  castle  at  Gaesbeck,*  with  its  beautiful  walks  and 
environs,  gave  me  great  pleasure,  but  I  did  not  go  into  the  church  of 
Ste.  Gudule  at  Brussels,  though  I  was  near  it  many  times.  At  Co- 
logne I  never  knew  anybody,  or  at  least  I  never  knew  more  than  one 
person,  and  I  forget  his  name  ;  so  I  went  only  to  the  cathedral.  But 
that  was  enough.  I  was  astonished  to  find  how  much  has  been  done 
towards  finishing  it,  and  begin  to  believe,  what  never  seemed  credible 

to  me  before,  that  it  may  yet  be  completed But  enough  of  the 

old  city  ;  it  is  in  the  main  a  nasty  old  place. 

Bonn,  on  the  contrary,  is  as  neat  as  a  new  pin.  But  there,  too, 
except  one  afternoon's  delicious  excursion  up  the  river  to  the  Godes- 
berg  and  the  Drachenfels,  and  a  visit  to  the  monument  of  Beethoven, 
I  hardly  once  went  out  of  the  house.  Your  aunt  Catherine,t  and  the 
girls,  and  Charles  were  enough ;  but  besides  these,  I  had  my  old  kind 
friend.  Professor  Welcker,  every  day,  PauK,  —  a  very  active,  spirited 
young  man  who  was  secretary  to  Bunsen,  —  and  Professor  Gerhard, 
the  last  day,  who  was  among  those  Lady  Lyell  wrote  Anna  she  had 
seen  at  Berlin,  and  hoped  we  should  see  there,  little  thinking  that 
he  was  an  old  acquaintance,  and  was  coming  right  to  us  at  Bonn. 

Here  it  is  much  the  same  sort  of  thing.  Dr.  Pauli  told  me  of  an 
enthusiastic,  scholar-like  German,  whom  I  had  known  at  Rome,  and 
who,  after  having  been  for  some  years  private  secretary  to  Prince 
Albert,  is  now  living  up  in  the  old  castle.J  He  came  this  morning 
and  left  his  card,  inviting  me  to  breakfast.  It  was  too  late,  for  we 
were  just  finishing  that  important  meal.  However,  when  we  went 
up  to  the  castle,  we  found  him  there  showing  about  Captain  H.,  a 
young  man  fresh  from  the  Crimea,  where  he  went  through  all  the 
battles  and  sieges  in  a  battalion  which  brought  home  less  than  half 
its  numbers Now  he  has  a  very  agreeable,  fine-looking  wife, 

*  Count  Arrivabene,  formerly  the  guest  of  the  Arconatis  at  Gaesbeck,  now 
lived  there  alone,  and  the  enchantment  of  a  summer's  clay,  in  the  interesting 
old  chateau  and  among  the  labyrinthine  beech  alleys  of  its  beautiful  woods, 
was  all  enhanced  by  his  really  affectionate  mode  of  making  his  friends  feel  at 
home,  and  feel  that  he  valued  and  wished  to  prolong  their  visit, 

t  Mrs.  Norton  returning  from  Italy. 

X  Hen  Carl  Meyer  von  Rinteln. 


M.  65.]  DRESDEN.  329 

to  whom  he  has  been  married  only  a  few  weeks,  the  clay  but  one,  I 
believe,  after  he  marched  through  London  in  that  great  show  of  the 
reception  of  the  Guards  by  the  Queen,  which  we  were  smuggled 
through  the  lines  to  see  by  Lord  and  Lady  Ellesmere 

Then  I  drove  to  see  Mad.  Bunsen,  from  whom  I  had  a  letter  at 
Frankfort,  telling  me  that  her  husband  was  in  Switzerland.  I  found 
her  very  hearty  in  her  welcome,  and  her  two  daughters  very  nice ; 
all  living  in  a  pleasant  house  just  outside  of  the  town.  ....  I  liked 
so  well  that  I  think  I  shall  go  again  this  evening 

Anna  has  just  come  down  from  the  castle,  and  says  your  mother 

and   H.   mean  to   dine  there  under  the  trees She,   herself, 

goes  to  see  her  old  friend  Mad.  B.,  and  very  likely  I  shall  drive 
there  with  her  and  go  and  see  Professor  Mohl,  brother  of  the  one  in 
Paris,  and  perhaps — if  I  am  not  too  tired  —  call  on  Professor  Mit- 
termaier,  the  jurist.  But  I  become  easily  fatigued.  I  did  too  much 
in  London,  and  am  but  just  getting  over  it.     However,  I  am  very 

well.     So  are  we  all,  and  stand  our  work  remarkably 

Your  affectionate  father, 

G.T. 

The  detailed  accounts  of  pleasant  experiences,  at  different  points 
of  these  travels,  will  be  found  scattered  irregularly  through  the 
letters,  and  do  not,  perhaps,  lose  their  flavor  by  being  delayed 
in  chronology.  On  reaching  Dresden,  August  13,  a  halt  was 
called,  and  the  home-like  place  was  made  headquarters  for  six 
weeks.  Those  dear  friends,  Sir  Charles  and  Lady  Lyell,  hap- 
pened to  be  in  Dresden  at  the  time  of  the  arrival  of  the  party ; 
and  later  a  meeting  w^as  arranged  there,  with  Mr.  and  INIrs. 
Twisleton  and  her  sister,  that  was  delightful;  besides  which 
Dean  and  Mrs.  Milman  passed  through  about  the  same  time. 
One  pleasant  afternoon,  especially,  this  tripartite  party  of  Amer- 
ican and  English  friends  spent  with  the  charming  family  of  the 
artist,  Julius  Hlibner,  looking  over  his  drawings  and  enjoying 
his  collections.  This  artist's  home  was  genially  opened  to  Mr. 
Ticknor  and  his  family,  in  consequence  of  an  introduction  from 
Gerhard. 

Mr.  Forbes  was  still  English  Minister  to  the  Saxon  Court,  and, 
on  his  return  from  an  excursion,  he  resumed  his  old  kind  and 
familiar  intimacy  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Ticknor.     But,  above  all, 


330  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

the  friendship,  which  their  correspondence  had  cherished  and 
increased,  between  the  King  and  Mr.  Ticknor,  was  further 
strengthened  by  the  warm  and  simple  welcome  which  King 
John  gave  his  American  friend,  desiring  him  to  come  to  Pill- 
nitz  to  see  him  without  other  form  than  at  a  private  house,  and 
summoning  him  repeatedly  to  dinner,  on  all  wliich  occasions  he 
treated  him  with  affectionate  confidence. 

On  the  27th  of  August  Mr.  Ticknor  took  his  family  for  a 
short  visit  to  Berlin,  where  they  remained  together  for  six  days, 
and  where  he  outstayed  his  party.  Eejoining  the  ladies  in 
Dresden  on  the  7th  of  September,  he  again  left  them  there  on  the 
14th,  and  went  to  Berlin  for  another  week.  In  Leipzig,  where 
he  stopped  three  times;'  ,'  his  journeys  to  and  fro,  he  was  busy 
for  the  Library,  and  in  Berlin  he  did  a  great  deal  of  laborious 
work.  But  in  Berlin,  as  in  Dresden,  he  found  old  and  new 
friends,  and  in  subsequent  letters  he  describes  his  enjoyment  of 
daily  intercourse  vrith.  Humboldt,*  and  the  entertainment  of  a 
great  Court  dinner  at  Potsdam,  on  occasion  of  the  arrival  of  the 
Grand  Duke  of  Baden  for  his  marriage  with  a  princess  of  Prus- 
sia. This  was  Mr.  Ticknor's  only  opportunity  for  conversation 
with  the  then  reigning  sovereign,  Frederic  William  TV.,  whose 
varied  accomphshments  and  versatile  talent  made  a  strong  im- 
pression on  him.  Yon  Eaumer  and  Count  Eaczynski,  among  old 
acquaintances,  and  the  younger  Schadow,  among  new  ones,  added 
to  the  pleasures  of  Berlin. 

On  finally  leaving  Dresden,  September  25,  Mr.  and  ]\Irs. 
Ticknor  had  further  proof  of  the  constancy  of  those  who  had 
formerly  been  kind  to  them,  in  the  warm  and  earnest  welcome 
given  to  the  whole  party  at  Tetschen,  where  they  stopped  a  few 
hours  to  see  Count  Thun  and  his  daughters. t  Old  memories 
were  recalled,  —  some  sadly  and  tenderly,  for  the  Countess  had 

*  Mr.  Ticknor  writes  to  Mr.  Prescott,  after  this  visit :  "  Hum'boldt  was  mtich 
changed,  as  might  be  anticipated ;  for  the  difference  between  sixty-seven  and 
eighty-seven  is  always  mnch  greater  than  between  forty-seven  and  sixty-seven  : 
these  being,  respectively,  the  intervals  of  my  acquaintance  with  him.  But  his 
faculties  seem  as  active,  and  his  pursuit  of  knowledge  as  eager  as  ever ;  while, 
at  the  same  time,  his  benevolence  seems  to  grow  with  his  years." 

t  See  Vol.  I.  p.  505  et  seq. 


JE.  65.]  BERLIN.  331 


(Jied,  —  and  their  kindness  was,  if  possible,  greater  than  ever. 
Additional  instances  of  it  occurred  in  Vienna,  where  Count 
Thun  followed  them,  and  where  his  sons,  Count  Franz  and  Count 
Leo,  —  the  latter  then  a  Cabinet  Minister,  —  renewed  all  their 
former  faithful  and  attractive  courtesy;  and  in  Italy,  wliere 
Count  Frederic,  whom  Mr.  Ticknor  had  not  before  known,  re- 
ceived him  at  Verona  as  an  old  friend  of  the  family. 

Durins:  his  second  short  visit  in  Berlin  Mr.  Ticknor  wrote  as 
follows  to  Mrs.  Ticknor  :  — 

Berlin,  Friday,  September  19. 

I  cannot  get  back  before  Sunday  evening,  6  o'clock.  It  is  impos- 
sible. I  have  worked  till  twelve  o'clock  e^erv  night,  and,  though  I 
am  sixty-five  years  old,  I  have  accomplishe< .  as  much  in  the  last  five 
days,  including  Leipzig,  as  I  ever  did  in  any  five  days  of  my  hfe. 

Wednesday  I  passed  all  day  at  the  Library,  and  in  the  booksellers' 
shops  with  Dr.  Brandes,  and  wrote  all  the  evening,  except  that  I  called 
twenty  minutes  at  Varnhagen's.  But  the  booksellers  are  very  clumsy 
and  slow  ;  and  kind  Dr.  Brandes  scolds  them  in  vain,  and  gets  more 
out  of  patience  with  them  than  I  do. 

Yesterday  I  first  arranged  with  Professor  Dehn,  of  the  Library,  — 
where  there  are  95,000  works  m  music  and  on  music,  — to  buy  £  100 
worth  to  begin  our  Library  with.  Then  I  came  home,  and  had  a 
visit  from  Varnhagen  and  his  niece,  desperately  agreeable,  and  I 
promised  to  take  coifee  with  them  this  P.  m.  at  five.  Then  I  Avorked 
on  books  ;  then  at  two  o'clock  was  off  to  Potsdam,  to  dine  with  the 
King,  who  sent  his  verbal  commands  by  his  Hofmarschal,  about 
eleven  o'clock,  to  that  eff'ect.  Went  out  in  the  cars,  and  slept  nearly 
the  whole  way,  from  sheer  fatigue. 

Dinner  was  very  brilliant ;   the  whole  Court Had  a  jolly 

good  time  at  table  with  forty  odd  people,  but  chiefly  with  an  old 
general,  who  went  to  England  when  the  afliancing  took  place  there,* 
and  is  now  just  back  from  the  Russian  coronation ;  the  Prince  of  Prus- 
sia ;  t  and  one  of  the  dames  d'Jionneur,  of  which  I  will  give  you  an  ac- 
count. After  dinner  we  were  in  the  salon  about  an  hour,  and  the 
King  talked  with  me  more  than  half  the  time  ;  was  truly  agreeable, 
and  sometimes  scholar-like,  urged  me  very  much  to  stay  to  the  fStes 
of  the  marriage  next  Aveek,  and  took  leave  of  me  with  a  hearty  shake 

*  Of  the  Princess  Royal, 
t  The  present  Emperor. 


332  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

of  the  hand,  and  a  heartier,  "  God  bless  you  ;  come  again  to  Sans 
Souci."  I  said  I  hoped  I  might.  "  Mais  malheureusenient,  nous 
n'aurons  pas  de  mariage." 

I  came  in  with  the  Minister  at  War,  old  General  Nostitz,  —  Bliicher's 
aide-de-camp,  —  and  my  general  from  the  coronation,  —  name  forgot- 
ten, —  he  amusing  us  with  accounts  of  the  ceremonies  and  ladies 
there.  But  I  have  neither  room  nor  time  to  tell  you  details  ;  but  I 
will  add,  that  Humboldt's  kindness  was  consistent  to  the  last  mo- 
ment, and  in  every  possible  way.  When  1  came  to  town,  being  en 
grande  tenue,  I  made  a  call  on  our  Minister,  —  but  did  not  tell  him 

where  I  came  from,  —  and  then  went  to  the  Pertzes' I  staved 

till  after  eleven,  and  had  a  first-rate  time ;  came  home  and  wrote  till 
half  past  twelve. 

This  morning  I  feel  rested  ;  but  I  have  a  good  deal  of  work  to  do 
to-day  ;  go  at  ten  to  see  some  rare  Spanish  books  ;  at  one  to  Hum- 
boldt ;  at  five  to  Yarnhagen  ;  and  fill  the  rest  of  the  time  with  writ- 
ing about  books.  To-morrow  I  settle  accounts,  pay  up,  and  send  off 
everything  to  Leipzig ;  and  on  Sunday,  at  six,  expect  to  meet  Ales- 
sandro  [his  courier]  at  the  station. 

The  Duke  of  Saxe-Cobourg,  who  has  taken  half  the  hotel  for  the 
fetes  of  the  marriage,  arrived  last  night,  while  I  was  at  the  Pertzes', 
and  the  consequence  is  that  the  entries  are  full  of  livery-servants,  and 
the  porte-cochere  is  garnished  with  a  guard  of  honor. 

To  Hon.  E.  Everett.''^ 

Berlin,  September  20,  1856. 
....  Two  evenings  ago  I  was  at  Dr.  Pertz's  house,  in  a  ver}'-  brill- 
iant and  intellectual  party,  where  were  the  Milmans  and  Homers 
from  London,  Ranke,  Meineke,  —  the  Grecian,  —  Ehrenberg,  Encke, 
Lepsius,  and  others  of  the  same  sort,  when  a  nice  white-headed,  charm- 
ing old  lady,  with  a  very  taking  little  Scotch  accent,  and  who  seemed 
much  valued  by  all  about  her,  spoke  to  me,  and  told  me  she  was  Miss 
Gibson,  that  pleasant,  pretty  little  Scotch  girl  whom  we  knew  at 
Dresden  and  Potsdam  just  forty  years  ago,  and  who  tells  me  she  has 
the  handwriting  of  both  of  us  in  her  album.  I  assure  you  I  had  a 
most  pleasant  talk  with  her.     She  is  still  Miss  Gibson,  living  here 

much  regarded,  with  a  good  fortune She  is  connected  with 

the  Sutherland  family,  by  the   beautiful   Marchioness  of  Staftbrd, 

*  Parts  of  this  letter  have  appeared  in  the  preceding  chapter. 


M.  Qb.'\  IMPROVEMENTS.  333 

whom  I  could  hardly  kee})  my  eyes  off  of,  as  she  sat  opposite  to  me 
one  day  at  dinner,  in  London 

But  if  I  begin  to  gossip  about  people,  I  shall  be  in  for  two  or  three 
sheets  more.  I  will  only,  therefore,  say  a  word  about  changes.  They 
are  enormous.  Berlin  is  a  city  of  450,000  souls,  eminently  prosper- 
ous, and  full  of  monuments  and  collections  in  the  arts.  Dresden  has 
improved  in  equal  proportions,  and  has  now  a  magnificent  gallery  for 
its  magnificent  collection  of  pictures,  a  finer  and  grander  building, 
and  one  better  fitted  to  its  purposes,  than  any  similar  one  in  Italy  or 
elsewhere.  You  must  come  here  again,  indeed  you  must.  Before  I 
tried  the  experiment  I  would  not  have  said  so.  In  truth,  I  came 
most  reluctantly.  But  I  find  the  improvements  in  travelling  so  great, 
that  what  used  to  cause  me  constant  weariness  and  vexation  now 
causes  me  neither  ;  and,  to  my  great  surprise,  I  enjoy  myself  more  — 
mainly  in  consequence  of  the  ease  and  comfort  with  which  I  move 
about,  and  live  —  than  I  did  in  either  of  my  other  visits  to  Eu- 
rope  

I  am  very  glad  that  Congress  has  adjourned,  and  I  shall  be  still 
more  glad  when  the  Ides  of  November  are  past.  Nobody  has  said  an 
unkind  or  unpleasant  word  to  me  about  our  country  since  I  have 
been  in  Europe  ;  but  I  feel,  on  all  sides,  that  we  stand  in  little  favor 
or  respect.  Humboldt  —  whom  I  have  seen  every  day,  or  had  a  note 
from  him  —  is,  I  understand,  very  strong  in  his  remarks  sometimes, 
even  to  Americans.  I  cannot  say  that  I  am  surprised.  But  I  hope 
for  the  best,  and  always  talk  cheerfully.  Mr.  Fillmore  left  a  most 
agreeable  impression  here.  The  King  was  delighted  with  him,  and 
told  me  he  would  vote  for  him  for  President.  I  replied,  that  Bu- 
chanan would  get  the  election,  notwithstanding  his  Majesty's  vote. 
"  Well,"  he  answered,  "  never  mind,  I  am  glad  we  are  of  the  same 
party,  and  you  may  always  count  upon  my  vote,  at  any  rate," 

We  had  been  talking  some  time  on  American  politics,  and  I  had 
told  him  that  I  was  of  Fillmore's  faction.  Eyi  passant,  let  me  say, 
that  the  King  is  one  of  the  most  agreeable  men  in  conversation  that 
I  have  ever  talked  with,  and  has  that  reputation  here.  But  that  is  a 
very  different  thing  from  being  a  great  or  wise  statesman. 

Dresden,  September  21.  —  I  returned  to  Dresden  last  night,  and 
this  morning,  when  turning  over  my  papers,  I  fell  upon  a  memoran- 
dum about  a  new  ordinance  for  the  Library,  concerning  which  we 
talked  last  March,  and  I  gave  you  a  sketch  or  outline,  trusting  that 
it  would  be  done  this  autumn.  Now  is  the  time.  Please  give  your 
thought  to  it 


334  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

To  William  S.  Dexter. 

Dresden,  September  24,  1856, 

My  dear  Dexter,  —  Thank  you  for  your  letter  from.  AVoods'  Hole, 
dated  August  24,  just  a  niontli  to-day.  It  is  a  great  comfort  to  those 
who  are  so  far  off,  and  leave  interests  behind  greater  than  they  ever 
left  before,  to  have  such  cheerful  accounts,  and  to  have  them  so  often 
and  so  regularlv 

I  need  not  tell  you  that  we  are  all  well.  Nor  need  I  tell  you  what 
we  have  been  doing.  You  know  more  about  it,  from  the  time  of  our 
casting:  off  from  the  wharf  in  East  Boston,  than  I  can  now  remember. 
But  in  general  terms,  I  can  say  that  we  have  had  a  much  better  time 
than  I  expected,  and  enjoyed  much  more  than  I  thought  we  should. 
The  travelling  servants  are  much  more  accomplished,  and  better  fitted 

to  their  business  than  they  used  to  be When  I  was  first  in 

Europe,  forty  years  ago,  the  species  was  hardly  kno^vn,  and  the  few 
that  served  were  almost  entirely  real  couriers,  who  rode  ahead  to 
order  horses,  and  were  fit  for  little  else.  Twenty  years  ago  they 
were  better,  but  their  number  was  not  fairly  equal  to  the  demand, 
and  they  presumed  a  good  deal  upon  their  consequence.  Now  they 
offer  themselves  to  you  in  crowds,  and  competition  makes  them 
active,  efficient,  and  even  honest.  How  much  such  a  state  of  things 
alleviates  the  troubles  of  travelling  I  need  not  tell  you  ;  but  even 
this  improvement  is  little,  compared  with  the  improvement  in  the 
hotels,  and  the  hotel  service,  and  the  facilities  and  comforts  offered 
by  the  railroads.  The  result  in  my  o^vn  case  is  that,  wholly  contrary 
to  my  expectation,  I  enjoy  travelling. 

Changes  I  find  on  all  sides  ;  enormous,  and  sometimes  startling. 
Many  friends  are  gone,  who  used  to  be  very  important  to  us.  Tieck, 
Tiedge,  and  Mad.  de  Liittichau  among  the  first  ;  but  more  remain, 
I  think,  than  could  have  beeii  reasonably  expected,  after  the  lapse  of 
so  many  years,  and  we  find  them  very  kind.  Like  true  Germans, 
they  take  us  up  just  where  they  left  us.  This  I  say,  thinking  of 
Dresden  ;  but  at  Berlin  it  was  the  same,  and  so  it  will  be,  I  am  sure, 
wherever  we  go  in  Germany,  for  the  Germans  are  an  eminently 
faithful  people. 

We  all  feel  a  little  sorry  and  troubled  at  leaving  Dresden 

But  the  autumn  is  coming  on,  and  we  shall  find  milder  skies  and 
brighter  days  at  the  South.  We  set  off,  therefore,  to-morrow  for 
A^ienna,  hoping  to  be  in  Venice  by  the  middle  of  October,  and  before 
Rome  by  December  1 


M  65.]  MILAN.  335 

Give  my  Lest  love  to  dear  Lizzie.  I  am  delighted  to  hear  that  she 
is  so  well.     Let  her  keep  gaining  till  I  see  her. 

Yours  very  affectionately, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Mrs.  W.  S.  Dexter. 

Milan,  October  26,  1856. 

Dearest  Ljzzie,  —  I  thank  your  husband,  through  you,  for  a  very 
kind  and  interesting  letter  that  I  received  from  him  a  few  days  ago, 
dated  October  7.  He  writes  to  me  always  on  important  matters, 
which  are  rarely  touched  upon  by  my  other  friends,  and  never  in  a 
manner  so  satisfactory.  I  trust,  therefore,  that  he  will  continue  to 
tell  me  what  he  may  be  sure  I  should  be  glad  to  hear  from  anybody, 
and  what  I  am  particularly  glad  to  learn  from  him 

We  have  done  eminently  well  in  our  journeyings  from  Vienna  to 
this  place,  and  seen  a  great  deal  that  interested  us.  Most  of  it  was 
new  to  me,  and  much  of  it  very  remarkable.  The  passage  of  the 
Semmering  —  the  first  day  after  leaving  Vienna  —  is  one  of  the 
grandest  things  that  can  be  seen  anywhere.  It  almost  —  perhaps 
quite  —  proves  that  a  railroad  can  be  built  over  the  Alps  ;  and  that 
people  will  go  in  four  or  five  days  to  Eome  from  London,  — a  great 
matter  for  the  Cockneys,  who  only  care  to  be  able  to  say  they  have 
been  there,  having  little  comprehension  of  what  they  see,  and  none  at 
all  of  what  they  hear. 

The  journey  by  Griitz  on  the  south  side  of  the  mountains  —  which 
was  the  counterpart  to  the  one  we  made  by  Ischl  and  the  Lakes,  on 
the  north  side  twenty  years  ago  —  was  very  fine.  From  Adelsberg 
to  Venice,  by  Lend,  through  Friuli,  was  all  new,  likewise  ;  and  more 
than  that,  most  of  the  way  we  travelled  quite  out  of  the  reach  of 
guide-books,  and  had  a  sense  of  discovery  as  we  went  along.  It  is  a 
beautiful  and  very  picturesque  country,  and  we  avoided,  by  passing 
through  it,  the  passage  in  a  steamboat  from  Trieste  to  Venice 

Since  I  wrote  the  two  last  pages  I  have  been  to  high  mass  in  the 
cathedral.  The  music  was  not  much  ;  but  there  must  have  been  five 
thousand  people  at  least  present,  and  the  scene  was  very  grand  and 
solemn,  more  so,  I  think,  than  the  similar  one  is  at  St. 'Peter's.  "We 
had  a  very  plain,  good  sermon  on  forgiveness  of  enemies,  which,  per- 
haps, half  the  audience  could  hear.  But  one  thing  I  would  desire  to 
note  on  this  occasion,  viz.  that,  as  I  witnessed  to-day,  and  have  often 
witnessed  before,  the  habit  of  spitting  —  with  which  we  are  so  much 


L 


336  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 

reproaclied  in  Yankeedom  —  is  by  no  means  an  exclusively  American 
habit.  I  find  it  common  in  Italy  thus  far.  Well-dressed  people  all 
around  me  this  forenoon,  who  paid  for  the  chairs  they  occupied,  spat 
on  the  marble  floor  of  the  church  without  ceremony.  So  did  a  man 
of  science.  Secretary  of  the  Institute  at  Venice,  who  lived  in  a  fine, 

beautiful,  neat  palazzo,  that  was  once   Cardinal  Bembo's In 

Germany  they  seemed  a  little  more  careful,  but  there  was  plenty  of  it 
there  too 

But  let  us  talk  of  more  agreeable  things.  Anna  has  not,  I  think, 
kept  you  in  ignorance  of  Count  Frederic  Thun,  the  present  civil  gov- 
ernor of  the  Lombardo- Venetian  kingdom,  or  of  his  charming  wife, 
or  of  the  most  agreeable  dinner  we  had  in  his  palazzo  at  Verona. 
When  we  left  him,  he  told  us  he  should  soon  be  in  Milan  on  business, 
and  that  very  likely  he  should  see  us  again.  Last  evening  he  came  in 
at  eight  o'clock — just  like  an  old  friend  in  Park  Street  —  and  sat 
with  us  till  bedtime.  His  English  is  excellent,  and  he  talked  with 
great  frankness  and  power  ;  about  European  politics  generally,  the 
troubles  in  Germany  in  1848-49,  and  the  present  state  of  Italy.  I 
have  seldom  been  more  interested 

Radetzky,  at  ninety,  is  full  of  fire,  rising  at  four  in  the  morning, 
and  working,  with  faculties  unbroken  by  age,  until  evening,  when  he 
goes  early  to  bed.  This  year,  for  the  first  time,  his  physicians  told 
him  that  he  could  not  anv  longer  mount  on  horseback.  For  a  moment 
it  distressed  him  very  much,  and  he  wept.  Even  afterwards  it  con- 
tinued to  worry  him,  and  he  sent  in  his  resignation,  saying  that  he 
was  no  longer  fit  to  command  troops,  at  whose  head  he  could  no 
longer  march.  But  the  Emperor  refused  to  accept  his  resignation 
with  words  so  kindly  and  gracious,  that  he  consented  to  keep  his 
place,  and  has  had  a  little  carriage  constructed  in  which  he  can  re- 
view the  troops  quite  to  his  mind  ;  so  that  the  Count  says  he  is  in 
better  spirits,  and  oftener  in  the  field,  than  for  some  years.  That  he 
is  a  most  wonderful  man  for  his  age,  there  can  be  no  doubt 

Count  Thun  is  as  energetic  as  he.  And  the  power  and  resources  of 
both  are  wanted  here,  for  no  position  in  the  Empire  is  more  important 
or  more  beset  with  difficulties  than  theirs. 

While  your  mother  was  at  the  Lake  of  Conio  I  spent  my  days  in 
tlie  libraries  here,  and  with  three  or  four  men  of  science  and  letters. 
But  one  evening  I  went  to  the  theatre,  attracted  by  the  annunciation 
of  a  comedy  of  Goldoni,  "  La  Sposa  Sagace,"  —  The  Discreet  Bride. 
r  ....  The  price  of  the  best  seat  in  the  house  was  about  twenty-seven 
cents,  but  the  stage  and  all  the  accessories  were  very  good,  the  acting 


M.  65.]  AN  ITALIAN  THEATRE.  337 

admirable,  and  the  audience  decent  and  well  behaved.  Few  paid 
so  dear  as  I  did  for  a  place,  none  more,  and  the  great  body  of 
the  audience  —  which  about  half  filled  the  theatre  —  went  in  their 
work-day  clothes,  and  seemed  to  consider  it  a  very  domestic  way  of 

spending  the  evening I  noticed  a  man  and   his  wife,  who 

looked  like  modest  shopkeepers,  or,  perhaps,  respectable  mechanics, 
who  had  a  little  son  between  them,  so  young,  that,  not  being  able  to 
enjoy  the  play,  he  had  been  permitted  to  bring  his  cat  to  amuse 

him It  was  capital ;  genuine,   popular  Venetian   characters, 

set  forth  in  the  purest  and  simplest  Italian  verse,  and,  as  I  said  before, 

all  admirably  performed.     Get  the  play  ;  it  will  amuse  you I 

should  not  wonder  if  you  read  a  good  many  of  the  plays,  and  if  you 
do,  you  may  always  remember  that  they  are  perfectly  true  to  Vene- 
tian life  and  manners,  and  relished  for  that  reason  by  all  classes  of 

society  in  the  North  of  Italy 

Addio,  carissima.     Off  at  eight  to-morrow,  for  Firenze  la  bella. 


VOL.    II.  15 


338  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 


CHAPTER    XYII. 

Italy.  —  Winter  in  Rome.  —  Florence,  Turin,  Paris.  —  Letters  to  Mr. 
Prescott,  Count  Circourt,  and  Mr.  Greenough. 

To  William  H.  Prescott. 

Rome,  November  2i,  1856. 

Dear  William,  — .  .  .  .  We  have  had  delicious  journeyings,  fine 

weather  without  interruption The  consequence  is  that  we  have 

enjoyed  ourselves  very  much.  Indeed,  I  doubt  whether  a  gayer  party 
has  crossed  the  Alps  this  year  ;  and  now  we  have  been  four  days 

s/  settled  at  Eome,  at  the  Hotel  des  lies  Britannique We  have 

had  a  little  touch  of  cold  weather,  but  the  roses  are  still  in  full  blow, 
and  so  are  the  cactuses,  and  other  southern  plants,  in  great  numbers 
on  the  Pmcio. 

We  had  a  week  of  full  moon  at  Venice,  —  including  the  eclipse,  — 
/  and  enjoyed  our  open  gondola  on  the  Grand  Canal,  which  was  filled 
'  h  with  Bacarole  choruses  till  after  midnight  nearly  every  night  we 
were  there,  a  thing  to  be  had  nowhere  else  in  the  world.  At  Verona 
I  stopped  a  day,  chiefly  in  order  to  see  Count  Frederic  Thun,  the 
civil  "  Viceroy "  of  Lombardy  and  Venice,  as  Padetzky  is  the  mili- 
tary ;  neither  having  the  title,  but  all  the  power 

In  Milaix  I  found  friends  old  and  new,  and  occupation  enough  for 
the  five  days  we  stopped  there.  And  then  such  a  journey  as  we  had 
for  seven  days  to  Florence  ;  not  a  cloud  in  the  sky,  so  to  speak  ;  no 
wind,  no  heat,  no  cold,  no  dust ;  the  carriage  always  open,  and 
,,  "breathing  and  living  a  pleasure  in  such  an  atmosphere.  We  paused 
at  Piacenza,  Pavia,  Modena,  and  Bologna,  so  that  the  ladies  could 
see  everything  they  wanted  to  see,  and  drove  down  into  Florence 
on  the  2d  of  November  through  hedge-rows  of  myrtle  and  roses. 
There  we  stopped  thirteen  days.  I  had  a  good  deal  to  do  for  the 
Library,  in  establishing  a  permanent  agency,  and  ordering  the  pur- 
chase of  books.  But  I  went  to  see  the  old  things  that  most  inter- 
ested me,  in  my  three  previous  visits,  and  look  forward  to  my  fifth 
next  spring,  with  added  pleasure  and  interest. 


JE.  65.]  MARQUIS  GINO  CAPPONI.  339 

Society  is  abundant  there,  and  good.  I  called,  soon  after  my  arri- 
val, on  Gino  Capponi,  and  as  he  was  not  at  home,  left  my  card. 
The  same  evening  he  came  to  see  us ;  totally  blind,  and  led  in  by 
a  friend  and  a  servant ;  and  afterwards  came  in  the  same  way  and 
spent  three  more  evenings.  His  infirmity  seems  to  have  taken  away 
none  of  his  courage  or  spirits.  He  talks  with  the  same  richness  and 
power,  philosophy  and  faith,  that  he  did  twenty  years  ago,  and  with 
the  same  vast  knowledge  of  facts  and  details,  which  yet  never  over- 
lay or  embarrass  his  wisdom.  There  are  certainly  few  men  like  him. 
But  the  old,  rich,  powerful  family,  recorded  by  Dante,  —  and  great 
before  Dante's  time,  as  well  as  ever  since,  —  disappears  with  him,  and 
all  his  vast  fortune  passes  to  another  name 

And  yet  he  bates  no  jot  of  heart  or  hope,  and  talks  about  the  great 
interests  of  the  world,  and  the  state  and  prospects  of  Italy,  as  if 
they  were  his  personal  affairs,  and  as  if  his  happiness,  and  that  of  his 
great  race,  were  connected  with  them  as  they  used  to  be.  Of  course 
he  has  no  political  influence,  and  desires  none.  In  the  troubles  of 
1848-49,  when,  not  quite  blind,  he  was  for  some  months  at  the 
head  of  aftairs,  he  did  good  service  to  the  state  by  counsels  of  mod- 
eration ;  and  now,  when  everything  is  changed,  he  preserves  not  only 
the  respect  of  Tuscany,  but  of  enlightened  Italians  everywhere  ;  and 
even  the  personal  kindness  of  the  Grand  Duke,  who  spoke  to  me 
of  him  with  great  respect,  while  on  his  part  he  did  full  justice  to 
the  Grand  Duke,  and  his  motives. 

But  his  main  attributes  are  those  of  a  w^ise,  learned  philosopher. 
He  ought  to  have  lived  in  the  days  of  the  Stoa,  or  in  the  best  days 
of  the  Eoman  Republic,  and  would  have  left  his  mark  on  either. 
The  Baron  von  Reumont,  Prussian  Minister  in  Tuscany,  who  has 
been  in  Italy  twenty  years,  —  and  whom  Humboldt  told  me  he 
considered  eminently  qualified  to  wi'ite  a  history  of  any  part  of  the 
Peninsula,  —  said  to  me,  "  Once  a  week  I  spend  an  afternoon  with 
the  Marquis  Capponi  to  take  a  lesson  in  Italian  history.  Nobody 
knows  it  as  he  does." 

I  speak  to  you  at  large  about  Capponi,  because  you  are  more  in- 
terested in  him,  I  suppose,  than  you  are  in  anybody  else  in  Florence. 
He  told  me  that  the  first  hundred  pages  of  your  "  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella "  were  translated  by  Mariotti,''^  who  used  to  live  in  Boston, 
and  that  they  were  better  done  than  the  rest 

I  passed  an  evening  with  the  Grand  Duke,  who,  soon  after  we 

*  Signer  Antonio  Gallenga,  author  of  "Country  Life  in  Piedmont,"  and 
works  on  the  history  and  present  state  of  Italy.     Mariotti  was  a  pseudonyme. 


1 


<J 


340  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1856. 


C 


reached  Florence,  went  off  to  the  marriage  of  his  eldest  son  with  a 
very  charming  Saxon  Princess.  He  is  more  changed  than  almost 
anybody  I  have  yet  seen.  He  stoops,  and  is  very  gray.  But  this 
can  be  easily  accounted  for.  Before  1848  he  thought  himself  a  pop- 
ular prince,  and  believed  he  belonged  to  the  true  party  of  progress. 
The  rude  awakening  that  he  had  from  that  delusion  has  much 
A~^  changed  and  disheartened  him.  Otherwise  he  is  the  same,  not  quick 
in  perception,  but  intelligent,  painstaking,  honest,  and  absolutely 
beyond  the  suspicion  of  reproach,  in  what  regards  his  private  life 
and  personal  character.  I  do  not  envy  him  his  high  position.  It  is 
a  very  false  one.  He  was  very  eager  in  his  inquiries  about  the 
United  States,  and  often  acute  in  the  questions  he  put  to  me 

On  looking  over  your  letter  to  see  if  there  is  anything  to  answer, 
I  notice  with  pleasure  what  you  say  of  Humboldt.  He  is,  indeed, 
a  man  worth  knowing,  and  even  more  so  now,  than  he  was  when  I 
was  first  acquainted  with  him  in  1817-19.  His  kindliness  increases 
with  his  years.  Every  day  of  the  fortnight  I  was  in  Berlin  he  did 
something  for  me,  and  every  day  I  either  saw  him  or  had  a  note  from 
him.  The  minuteness  of  his  care  would  have  been  remarkable  in  a 
young  man.  One  day,  when,  at  our  own  lodgings,  we  expressed  a 
doubt  about  going  to  Potsdam,  he  urged  us  so  strongly  to  go,  and 
said  so  much  about  the  changes  since  we  were  last  there,  that  we  told 
him  we  would  take  the  next  day  for  it.  The  same  evening  there  came 
a  long  note  entitled  "  Plan  strategique  pour  Potsdam,"  containing 
the  minutest  directions  about  going  and  returning,  with  a  list  of  every- 
thing we  ought  to  see  there.*  On  arriving,  we  found  the  librarian 
of  the  library  of  Frederic  II.  waiting  to  receive  us,  with  a  similar 
note  of  detailed  directions  in  his  hand,  and  pleased,  from  reverence 
for  Humboldt,  to  show  the  whole,  exactly  in  the  order  he  had  ap- 
pointed, and  then  see  us  to  the  cars  to  go  back.  Once,  as  we  were 
going  along  a  walk  where  a  cord  had  been  stretched,  to  signify  that 
the  passage  was  forbidden,  he  removed  it  and  told  us  to  go  through. 
I  hesitated,  and  objected  on  account  of  the  prohibition.  "  I  should 
like,"  he  replied,  "  to  see  anybody,  in  Potsdam  or  Berlin,  who  will 
stop  me  when  I  have  these  crooked  lines  that  everybody  knows "  — 
taking  out  Humboldt's  note  —  "telling  me  to  go  on." 

Just  so  it  was  when  I  dined  with  the  King,  in  consequence  of  a 
letter  to  him  from  the  King  of  Saxony.  It  was  a  large  dinner  in. 
honor  of  the  arrival  of  the  Duke  of  Baden,  who  was  married  three 

*  He  took  the  same  pains  to  enable  Mr.  Ticknor  to  see  to  advantage  his 
brother,  William  von  Humboldt's,  place  at  Tegel. 


M.  65.]  ROME.  341 

days  afterwards  to  the  beautiful  and  only  niece  of  the  King.  Hum- 
boldt, as  you  know,  dines  with  the  King  every  day,  and  sits  in  the 
stranger's  place  of  honor,  opposite  to  him  at  a  narrow  table.  He  had 
me  introduced  by  the  proper  person  to  all  the  family,  and  introduced 
me,  himself,  to  everybody  else  that  I  could  possibly  desire  to  know, 
and  more  than  I  can  now  remember  ;  intimated  —  I  have  no  doubt  — 
to  the  King  that  he  Avould  like  to  have  him  talk  to  me,  —  for  he  did 
it,  a  long  time  after  dinner,  —  and  placed  me  at  table  opposite  to  the 
bride,  as  he  said,  that  I  might  see  how  handsome  she  was,  and  near 
himself,  who,  like  many  men  of  extreme  age,  eats  very  largely,  yet 
still  talked  all  the  tune,  as  if  he  were  doing  nothing  else.  He  had 
the  great  collections  in  the  arts  opened  to  us  in  the  most  thorough 
manner  ;  met  us  at  Ranch's  studio,  at  the  time  when  he  knew  Ranch 
had  invited  us  to  be  there,*  and  so  on,  and  so  on,  seeming  to  care  for 
us  constantly.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  another  man  in  Europe  who 
would  have  taken  such  trouble  for  a  person  of  so  little  consequence, 
and  from  whom  he  could  expect  only  gratitude. 

November  27.  —  We  have  been  here  a  w^eek,  and  I  have  seen  a  good 
many  of  the  old  places  and  monuments.  They  all  seem  natural ; 
some  fresh,  as  if  I  had  seen  them  yesterday,  particularly  St.  Peter's 
and  the  Pantheon.  Yesterday  afternoon,  the  w' eather  being  very  fine, 
we  w^ent  to  the  top  of  the  Capitol  and  looked  at  the  grand  panorama, 
the  septem  dominos  monies,  the  old  Alban  Hills,  the  Sabine,  the  re- 
mote snow-capped  Apennines,  and  then  the  w^hole  modern  city, 
crowded  at  our  feet.  It  was  such  a  sight  as  can  never  be  seen  too 
often,  and  I  was  glad  to  find  that  I  knew  nearly  everything  by  heart. 
I  think  I  shall  enjoy  Rome  very  much,  because  I  shall  go  to  see  only 
the  things  I  want  to.  Having  seen  everything  twice  before  with  care, 
I  regard  myself  as  emeritus 

If  at  any  time  you  want  to  know  what  we  are  doing,  you  have 
only  to  stop  and  see  Lizzie  a  moment.  She  always  has  the  last  news, 
and  will  be  only  too  happy  to  tell  them,  or  read  them,  in  exchange 
for  the  great  pleasure  a  little  visit  from  you  will  give  her 

I  am  very  glad  to  hear  that  your  Robertson,  expurgatus  et  emenda- 

tus,  is  so  near  the  confines  of  day.     I  only  wish  it  were  all  your  work 

instead  of  a  part ;  for  respectable  as  the  old,  philosophical  Edinburgh 

clergyman  was,  he  can  never  be  made  fit  to  fill  the  gap  between 

"Ferdinand  and  Isabella"  and  "Philip  II."  ....  Ma  basta. 

Yours  always, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

*  Taking  with  him  the  lately  amved  folio  of  the  "  United  States  Kxpeditiou 
to  Japan,"  which  he  had  just  learned  that  Mr.  Ticknor  had  not  yet  seen. 


342  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1857. 

To  WiLLiA^i  H.  Prescott. 

Rome,  January  25,  1857. 

Dear  William,  —  I  have  received  your  characteristic  and  agreeable 
letter  of  December  8,  and  received  it  in  Eome,  as  you  thought  I 
should.  It  is  a  nice  old  place  to  get  pleasant  news  in,  and  to  live  in, 
and  to  go  about ;  a  little  out  of  repair,  to  be  sure,  as  the  Cockney 
said,  but  not  the  worse  for  that.  At  least,  such  as  it  is,  I  observe  that 
those  who  have  been  here  once  are  more  glad  to  come  again  than 
if  they  had  never  been,  and  that  those  who  have  lived  here  long  are 
apt  to  hanker  after  it,  and  come  at  last  to  end  their  days  among  its 

ruins  and  recollections Nor  am  I  much  astonished  at  it.     The 

society  is  not  exactly  like  what  society  is  in  any  other  capital  in  the 
world  ;  but  it  is  very  attractive,  and  has  gradually  settled  into  foims 
well  fitted  to  its  condition  and  character.  Mad.  de  Stael  —  who  was 
a  good  judge,  and  a  dainty  one,  too,  in  such  matters  —  is  known  to 
have  liked  it  very  much,  and  to  have  spoken  of  it  in  a  way  that  some- 
times surprised  her  friends  in  Paris.  In  Coriune,  —  I  think  it  is,  at 
any  rate  it  is  somewhere,  —  speaking  of  Rome  she  says,  "  C'est  le 
salon  de  I'Europe,"  and  the  phrase  has  its  force.  More  or  less  distin- 
guished and  intellectual  persons  come  here  every  winter  from  the 
different  countries  of  Europe,  and  as  there  is  really  but  one  society, 
they  must  either  live  isolated,  or  among  their  own  countrymen,  or 
meet  in  the  common  places  of  exchange  for  all,  and  carry  on,  in  the 
conversational  language  of  all,  an  intercourse  which  never  wants  topics 
for  agreeable  conversation 

Society  has  grown  more  luxurious,  more  elaborate,  and  less  gay. 
The  ladies'  dresses,  by  their  size,  really  embarrass  it  somewhat,  and 
Queen  Christina,*  with  the  ceremonies  attending  such  a  personage 
ever}nvhere,  embarrasses  it  still  more  this  year.  Above  all,  it  costs 
too  much.  Three  balls,  therefore,  are  as  much  as  anybody  gave  last 
winter,  or  will  give  this  year.  The  rest  is  made  up  of  tea  and  talk, 
ices  and  sideboard  refreshments,  which  at  Count  Lutzow's  and  the 
Marquis  Spinola's  are  very  agreeable  once  a  week,  and  pretty  dull  at 
the  Roman  Princesses  of  the  race  of  Fabius  Maximus.  At  all  the 
other  palazzos  —  and  in  sundry  other  places  —  a  half-hour  or  an  hour 
may  be  spent  pleasantly,  whenever  the  inmates  are  not  out  visiting,  a 
fact  politely  intimated  by  shutting  half  of  the  porte-cochere.  I  go 
pretty  often  in  this  w^ay,  especially  to  the  Borgheses',t  where  there  is 

*  Dowager-Queen  of  Spain. 

t  One  evening  in  conversation  with  the  Dowager-Princess  Borghese,  the  fact 


JE.  65.]  SOCIETY  IN  ROME.  343 


of  course  much  of  a  French  tone,  and  where,  amidst  all  the  luxury  of 
Paris,  and  in  grand  old  tapestried  halls,  such  as  Paris  cannot  show, 
you  find  the  most  simple  and  unpretending  ways  ;  the  children  and 
their  playthings,  in  the  third  and  fourth  generation,  mixed  up  with 
a  stray  cardinal  or  two,  or  a  couple  of  foreign  ambassadors  and  their 
wives,  as  I  witnessed  the  last  time  I  was  there 

Of  the  French,  except  the  personnel  of  the  Embassy,  ....  I  know 

hardly  anybody  that  I  care  to  see  often But  we  are  promised 

Ampere,  who  comes  to  Rome  as  often  as  he  can,  and  generally  writes 
something  good  about  it  afterwards.  Indeed,  in  consequence  of  his 
visit  last  year,  he  has  lately  published  some  remarks  about  the  period 
of  decay  in  the  Roman  Empire,  which,  by  an  intended  ricochet,  hits 
the  present  Emperor  so  hard  that,  as  his  Ambassador  said  to  me  the 
other  night,  speaking  of  Ampere,  "on  I'a  terriblement  gronde,"  mean- 
ing that  the  imperial  newspapers  had  come  down  very  hard  upon  him. 

But  he  will  be  well  received  at  the  Embassy  here  notwithstanding, 
he  is  so  agreeable.*  You  must  recollect  him  in  Boston,  full  of  esjyritf 
and  with  vast  stores  of  knowledge,  partly  inherited  as  it  were  from 
his  remarkable  father,  but  chiefly  acquired  by  hard  work  and  very 
extensive  travels.  He  is  a  member  of  two  classes  of  the  Institute,  and 
one  of  the  few  very  popular  men  of  letters  now  in  Paris. 

The  Germans  are  better  off",  as  they  always  are  in  Rome,  where  they 
have  loved  to  come  ever  since  their  first  irruption,  fourteen  centuries 
and  more  ago.  The  ablest  man  I  meet  is,  I  suppose,  Count  Colloredo, 
the  Austrian  Ambassador,  living  in  great  state  and  luxury  in  the  vast 
old  Palazzo  di  Venezia.  He  is  a  spare  man,  looking  much  like  a 
Yankee,  quick  and  eager  in  all  his  motions,  yet  unmistakably  a  grand- 
seigneur,  both  by  the  dignity  and  by  the  attentive  politeness  of  his 
manners.  "We  knew  him  very  well  twenty  years  ago,  just  beginning 
his  career  as  Austrian  Minister  at  Dresden  with  auguries  of  gi^eat  suc- 

was  noticed  that  in  Lis  three  visits  to  Europe,  Mr.  Ticknor  had  met  members 
of  five  generations  of  the  family  of  the  Princess,  who  was  nee  la  Rochefoucauld. 
An  appointment  was  immediately  made  for  his  seeing  her  infant  great-grandson, 
who  represented  the  sixth  generation,  and  Prince  Borghese  laughingly  bade  him 
come  back  in  another  twenty  years  and  see  the  next.  The  frequency  of  this 
kind  of  incident  became  amusing  to  Mr.  Ticknor's  party,  so  that  once,  on  seeing 
him  introduced  to  an  Italian  lady  and  presently  use  a  gesture  as  of  measuring 
a  small  height  from  the  gi'ound,  one  exclaimed,  "  Of  coiirse,  he  is  telling  her  he 
saw  her  when  she  was  a  little  child,"  which  proved  to  be  the  fact. 

*  In  the  margin  of  this  letter  Mr.  Ticknor -WTote  :  "Feb.  15.  Ampere  hag 
been  here  a  fortnight,  and  is  extremely  agreeable.  The  first  place  in  which 
I  met  him,  the  day  of  his  arrival,  was  that  Embassy.   But  he  goes  everywhere." 


344  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

cess,  which  have  been  fully  justified  ;  for  he  satisfied  his  government 
during  five  years  of  trouble  and  anxiety  in  England,  including  the 
Russian  war,  and  has  been  sent  here  now,  —  much  to  his  own  satis- 
faction, —  on  account  of  the  preponderating  influence  of  France.  His 
wife  —  whom  we  also  knew  in  Dresden,  though  he  was  not  then  mar- 
ried to  her  —  is  a  Polish  lady,  very  rich,  and  by  her  talent  fit  to  do 
half  the  work  of  his  Embassy,  any  day.  Both  are  very  agreeable, 
courtly  people,  who  have  the  fame  of  giving  the  best  dinners  that  are 
given  in  Italy.  I  have  been  at  one  which  was  given  to  Count  Goyon, 
the  French  Commander,  on  his  first  arrival  here.  It  was  quite  beyond 
any  scale  I  have  for  measuring  such  things,  but  it  struck  me  as  more 
simple  in  its  arrangements  and  compounds  than  I  expected 

^  On  our  arrival  we  found,  in  the  hotel  where  we  live.  Baron  Schack, 
who  wrote  the  remarkable  book  you  know  of  on  the  Spanish  Drama, 
and  who  has  an  extraordinary  knowledge  of  Spanish  literature,  and 
of  everything  Spanish,  having  lived  in  Spain  two  or  three  years,  and 
worked  there  like  a  dog.*  I  have  had  great  comfort  in  him,  the 
more,  because,  being  in  very  bad  health  and  hardly  able  to  go  out  at 
all,  he  has  been  glad  to  have  me  sit  with  him,  whenever  I  could  find 
half  an  hour  for  it.  He  is  a  man  of  good  fortune,  but  as  simple- 
hearted  and  unsophisticated  a  mere  German  scholar  as  I  have  ever 
known,  reading  nearly  all  languages  worth  it,  and  talking  several, 
especially  English,  very  well 

P  Gregorovius,  too,  is  here,  whose  remarkable  book  on  Corsica  was 
not  only  translated  into  English,  but  had  the  honor  of  a  separate 
translation  in  the  United  States.  He  has  been  employed  the  last  four 
years  on  a  history  of  Eome  for  the  eleven  centuries  and  more  that 
elapsed  between  its  first  occupation  by  the  barbarians  and  its  capture 
by  the  Constable  Bourbon  ;  a  well-limited  period,  taking  in  what  may 
most  fairly  be  called  the  Middle  Ages.     He  assigns  six  years  more  to 

L  his  most  difficult  task,  living  here  meanwhile  in  straightened  circum- 
stances, but  with  a  very  bright,  cheerful  nature,  that  seems  to  gild  his 
dark  hours  as  they  move  on I  said  at  the  beginning  of  my  let- 
ter that  Rome  is  a  good  place  to  live  in  permanently Three  or 

four  hours  every  day  are  spent  in  going  about,  often  to  drive  in  deli- 
cious weather  —  the  roses  are  in  blow,  and  the  camellias  just  coming 
out — over  the  Camjiagna  in  an  open  carriage,  with  grand  ranges  of 
aqueducts  on  each  side,  and  before  us  the  Alban  and  Sabine  hills. 
....  More  often  we  go  to  see  what  you  saw  in  your  time  and  I  in 
mine,  but  to  which  I  am  surprised  to  find  additions  of  interest  much 
beyond  what  I  expected. 

*  See  ante,  p,  250. 


M.  65.]  CHANGES  IN  ROME.  345 

Some  of  us  lately  saw  the  remains  of  the  Wall  of  Serviiis  Tullius, 
recently  dug  out,  just  where  Dionysius  Halicarnassus  said  it  would  be 
found,  if  they  would  remove  the  houses  standing  over  it  in  his  time. 
A  few  days  ago  we  took  a  learned  young  German,  who  has  been  two 
years  here  looking  up  antiquities  in  the  pay  of  the  Prussian  govern- 
ment, and  went  with  him  over  the  Forum  and  the  adjacent  localities. 
A  great  deal  has  been  excavated,  and  much  is  now  certain  and  settled 
that  was  in  fierce  contest  when  I  went  over  the  same  ground  with 
Bunsen  twenty  years  ago 

Going  outside  of  the  city  there  are  two  marvellous  things  to  see  that 
were  not  to  be  seen  in  our  time.  One  is  the  Appian  Way,  —  regina 
viarum,  —  which  has  been  opened  quite  out  to  Albano,  and  its  tombs 

uncovered  farther  than  we  have  yet  driven The  other  is  the 

Catacombs,  where  a  great  deal  of  work  has  lately  been  done,  and  very 
extraordinary  remains  of  the  early  Christians  and  their  art  discov- 
ered. We  passed  two  hours  in  one  the  other  day  under  the  leading 
and  lecturing  of  de  Eossi,  a  learned  and  enthusiastic  man,  who 
has  made  many  of  the  excavations  and  will  publish  a  book  about 
them.  Whewell  was  of  the  party,  and  we  were  all  greatly  surprised 
at  what  we  saw 

As  I  am  in  the  category  of  changes  in  Eome,  I  will  give  you  an- 
other class  of  them,  —  I  mean  those  that  relate  to  ecclesiastical  affairs 
and  manners.  The  manners  of  the  higher  clergy,  and  probably  of  all 
classes  of  the  clergy,  are  become  more  staid  ;  perhaps  their  characters 
are  improved,  for  I  hear  fewer  stories  to  their  discredit.  The  first 
time  I  was  invited  to  the  Borgheses'  in  1836,  was  on  a  Sunday  even- 
ing, and  the  first  thing  I  saw  when  I  entered  was  seven  Cardinals, 
four  at  one  table,  three  at  another,  ^^dth  their  red  skull-caps  and  pieds 
de  perdrix,  playing  at  cards.  Similar  exhibitions  I  witnessed  all  the 
season  through,  there  and  elsewhere.  But  this  year  I  have  not  seen. 
a  single  Cardinal  at  a  card-table.     The  Pope  is  known  to  disapprove 

it,  and  that  is  enough Indeed,  though  ecclesiastics  of  all  the 

higher  ranks  go  into  fashionable  society  still,  and  even  to  balls,  their 
numbers  are  smaller,  and  they  go  early  and  leave  soon.  The  Pope's 
favor  can  hardly  be  had  else  ;  for  however  much  the  people  generally 
may  dislike  him, —  or  rather  his  ministers,  —  those  near  his  person 
are  sincerely  attached  to  him,  and  all  admit  him  to  b'e  a  man  of  irre- 
proachable character,  and  to  be  striving  above  everything  else,  by  his 
own  strict  observances  and  by  corresponding  requirements  of  others, 
to  advance  the  Catholic  religion. 

We  have  every  way  an  agreeable  time  here  ;  generally  a  merry  one. 

15* 


346  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

Pleasant  occupations  are  abundant,  and  pleasant  people  to  be  found 
everywhere  in  the  salons  and  at  the  dinner-tables.  Anna  the  elder, 
having  once  gone  thoroughly  through  all  the  phases  and  fashions  of 

Eoman  society,  has  declined  it  this  time Anna  the  younger, 

passing  every  forenoon  in  an  atelier  at  landscape-painting,  and  the 
rest  of  the  day  in  sight-seeing,  began  the  season  with  the  same  pur- 
pose of  abstinence  ;  but,  since  the  Carnival  came  in,  she  has  thawed 
out  a  little,  and  been  to  sundry  balls  and  parties,  which  have  amused 
her  a  good  deal.  I  have  worked  a  good  deal,  more  than  I  expected 
to,  and  have  found  more  than  I  anticipated  in  the  Libraries,  which 
seem  to  expand  as  I  advance 

February  17.  — .  .  .  .  We  are  in  the  midst  of  the  Carnival,  with 
mild,  delicious,  clear  weather,  that  makes  everything  gay,  carries 
everybody  into  the  Corso  in  open  caleches,  and  fills  the  Villa  Bor- 
ghese  with  blue  violets,  and  the  Villa  Pamphili  with  roses  and  camel- 
lias. "We  have  a  balcony  in  the  Corso,  and  grow  as  crazy  as  the  crowd 
below  us.  Ristori  is  acting,  and  we  have  a  box  at  the  theatre.  The 
upper  society  is  as  active  as  the  lower,  mingling  with  it  on  even 
terms  all  the  afternoons,  and  setting  up  for  itself  with  dinners  and 

balls  in  the  evenings It  is  all  very  strange,  often  a  mad  scene. 

I  think  I  never  saw  so  much  of  it  before,  or  w^as  so  much  wdth  the 
people  that  carry  it  on.  Certainly  I  never  watched  it  so  carefully,  or 
knew  so  much  about  it,  as  I  do  now."^  .... 

I  will  fill  up  my  little  space  with  an  account  of  a  dinner  yesterday, 
unlike  any  I  have  seen  here.t  It  was  at  the  Due  de  Rignano's,  a 
statesman  who  was  in  poor  Rossi's  excellent  cabinet,  and  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  respectable  men  in  Rome.  He  lives  with  great  luxury 
in  his  palace  on  the  declivity  of  the  Capitol,  and  had  at  his  table  yes- 
terday the  President  of  the  French  Academy  here,  a  professor  from 
the  Sapienza,  de  la  Rive,  Ampere,  Visconti,  Pentland,  —  who  wTote 
the  Murray  on  Rome,  and  is  more  than  half  an  Italian,  —  the  Due  de 
Sermoneta,:}: — who  is  accounted  the  pleasantest  man  in  society  here, 

*  In  1837  the  amusements  of  the  Carnival  were  prohibited  from  fear  of 
cholera.  In  1818  they  were  free  from  the  noisy  and  boisterous  manners  of  for- 
eigners, and  Mr.  Ticknor  remarked  on  the  difference,  saying  that  then,  instead 
of  the  present  indiscriminate  pelting  with  cruel  plaster  confetti,  nothing  biit 
bouquets  and  bonbons  were  thrown,  and  those  only  as  signs  of  recognition  de- 
spite the  mask  and  disguise. 

t  Mr.  Ticknor  dined  also  during  the  winter  at  the  French  and  Sardinian  Em- 
bassies', and  at  Prince  Borghese's,  as  weU  as  at  other  tables,  both  Roman  and 
foreign. 

t  Marchese  Gaetano  of  the  earlier  visit.    See  ante,  p.  70. 


vE.  65.][  LETTER  TO  COUNT  CIRCOURT.  347 


and  who  has  a  great  deal  of  literary  cultivation,  —  with  two  or  three 
members  of  the  family,  including  the  Duchess,  who  was  the  only  lady 
at  table.  The  service  was  silver,  as  in  most  great  Roman  houses,  and 
the  dinner  recherche,  after  the  Paris  fashion.  But  it  was  really  a 
dinner  for  talk,  and  in  this  particular  was  very  brilliant. 

The  curious  circumstance  about  it,  however,  was,  that  at  the  end 
of  the  regular  two  hours,  we  went  into  the  salon  for  coffee,  and  there 
continued  the  conversation  on  French  politics,  Italian  literature,  etc., 
near  two  hours  more,  icith  cigars,  to  the  full  content  of  the  Duchess, 
—  a  Piombino, — who  enjoyed  it  very  much,  talk,  cigars,  and  all. 
Ampere,  de  la  Rive,  and  Sermoneta  —  especially  the  first  and  the 
last  —  were  admirable.  I  have  not  been  present  at  so  agreeable  and 
brilliant  a  dinner  in  Europe.  Don't  you  think  the  Italians  are  im- 
proving ? 

On  looking  over  your  letter,  as  is  my  fashion  w^hen  I  am  closing  an 
answer,  I  find  two  things  that  surprise  me.  Who  told  you  that  I 
"  outw\atch  the  bear,"  and  that  I  "  keep  a  diary  "  ?  Both  are  mis- 
takes. I  have  led  a  more  regular  life  as  to  bedtimes  for  the  last 
eight  months  than  I  do  at  home  ;  and  as  for  journal,  I  do  not  even 
WTite  many  letters,  though  when  I  do,  as  you  see,  they  are  apt  to  be 
long  ones.     However,  there  is  an  end  to  evervthing  human.     When 

O  /  I/O 

we  leave  Rome,  we  shall  have  so  much  travelling  to  do,  that  I  think 

letters  on  my  part  will  be  rarer  than  ever But  my  paper  is 

full.     Are  you  not  glad  ?    Love  to  Susan,  and  a  great  deal  of  it,  and 

to  Elizabeth.*    We  think  and  talk  a  great  deal  of  you,  and  long  to 

see  you.  Always  yours, 

G.  T. 

To  Count  Adolphe  de  Circourt. 

Naples,  March  27,  1857. 

Mt  dear  Count  Circourt,  —  I  received  in  Rome  your  very  kind 
letter,  enclosing  one  for  Count  Goyon,  and  your  little  note  introdu- 
cing ^Irs.  Gaskell  and  her  two  daughters We  enjoyed  very 

much  our  acquaintance  with  the  de  la  Rives,  —  excellent  people,  full 
of  intelligence,  and  the  most  kindly  natures.     AVe  were  a  good  deal 

together,  and  parted  from  them  with  no  little  regret With 

Visconti,  who  is  in  all  societies,  as  he  always  has  been,  we  went  to 
the  excavations  he  is  superintending  at  Ostia,  and  to  the  Lateran 
Museum,  which  he  is  arranging,  and  found  him  full  of  knowledge, 
inherited  and  acquired 

*  Mrs.  James  La-\vrence,  daughter  of  Mr.  Prescott. 


348  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

Let  me  add  that  I  visited  the  Duchess  de  Blacas,  and  was  much 
touched  with  her  situation  and  appearance,  —  a  charming  person,  the 
resources  of  whose  character  seem  to  be  brought  out  by  the  great 
calamity  of  her  husband's  ilbiess.  Pray  offer  my  homage  to  the 
Duchess  de  Eauzan,  and  tell  her  how  much  I  was  gratified  by  my 
little  visit  to  her  daughter,  and  how  sincerely  I  sympathized  with  the 
misfortune  that  brought  her  to  Rome 

The  most  spirituel  of  the  persons  I  knew  was  the  Due  de  Sermo- 
neta,  who  would  be  distinguished  anywhere  for  his  taste,  knowledge, 
acuteness,  and  wit.     But  others  were  not  wanting. 

Cardinal  Antonelli,  whom  I  visited  at  the  Vatican,  and  who  was  to 
be  found  in  all  societies,  struck  me  as  an  accomplished  person,  with 
wimiing  manners,  but  with  much  more  the  air  of  the  world  than  that 
of  the  church.    He  was  always  agreeable  to  me,  and  I  think  agreeable 

to  nearly  everybody  in  common  intercourse He  is  the  whole 

government.  The  Pope  occupies  himself  very  sincerely  and  earnestly 
w^th  the  spiritual  condition  of  the  church.  Cardinal  Antonelli  does 
all  the  rest 

It  is  difficult,  however,  to  see  how  the  Eoman  government  can  get 
on  at  all,  without  a  man  of  vigor  and  ability,  like  Cardinal  Antonelli, 
at  its  head.  Its  finances  are  much  embarrassed,  and  yet  no  jot  of  its 
outlay  can  be  spared,  for  its  employes  are  often  unpaid,  and  its  inevi- 
table expenses  are  increasing,  though  the  fact  is,  as  much  as  possible, 
covered  up  and  concealed.  The  French  troops  are  a  grievous  burden 
and  dishonor,  but  no  reasonable  person  would  ask  to  have  them  taken 
away,  so  important  are  they  to  the  maintenance  of  order.  The  whole 
government,  therefore,  is  carried  on  in  the  boldest,  firmest  manner,  as 
if  everything  were  safe,  sure,  and  easy,  and  nothing  else,  it  seems  to 
me,  could  permit  it  to  be  carried  on  at  all.  The  question  is,  how  long 
such  a  state  of  things  can  last.  Under  ordinary  circumstances,  it 
could  hardly  have  lasted  as  long  as  it  has  already.  But  so  much  of 
Europe  is  in  a  similar  condition,  —  if  not  in  one  so  bad,  —  there  is 
such  a  general  moral  decay,  demanding  every^'here  military  repression 
and  great  vigor,  that  the  common  fate  seems  to  be  a  common  bond, 
holding  all  together,  lest  the  whole  should  break  up  in  one  and  the 
same  convulsion.  For  what  is  the  condition  of  Spain,  or  even  Aus- 
tria, —  both  really  bankrupt  and  dishonored,  —  and  how  stands  your 
o\\Ti  France,  with  its  vast  resources  and  yet  unspent  energies,  leaning 
on  the  most  extravagant  financial  projects  that  have  been  imagined 
since  the  days  of  Law  ?  Indeed,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  financial 
question  is  the  great  question  next  to  be  solved,  and  that  its  solution. 


M.  65.]  PROSPECTS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  349 

M'ill  shake  Europe  more  than  is  now  anticipated.  There  is  no  gov- 
ernment that  is  not  running  in  debt  every  year,  merely  to  maintain 
social  order,  and  to  this  inevitable  course  there  can  be  but  one  inevi- 
tal)le  termination.  Credit  must  still  be  pushed,  but  must  at  last  fail, 
and  then  revolution  of  some  sort  seems  inevitable  ;  but  I  cannot  im- 
agine that  anything  beneficent  should  come  in  its  train. 

But  you  would  rather  I  should  talk  to  you  about  the  United  States 
than  about  Europe,  which  you  understand  so  much  better  than  I  do. 
Indeed,  I  should  hardly  have  spoken  even  about  Rome,  if  you  had 
not  desired  it,  and  when  I  turn  to  America  I  cannot  speak  with  the 
details  and  confidence  I  should  if  I  were  at  home.  But  I  am,  per- 
haps, more  cool  than  I  should  be  if  I  were  in  the  midst  of  the  domes- 
tic discussion,  though  certainly  I  have  less  connaissance  cle  causes,  I 
do  not,  indeed,  see  far  ahead. 

Mr.  Buchanan  has  made  his  Cabinet,  and  it  is  as  good  and  conser- 
vative a  cabinet  as  could  have  been  expected  from  his  position 

The  country,  too,  is  quiet,  and  the  new  government  will  begin  with- 
out a  fierce  or  indiscriminate  opposition  to  its  measures.  But  there 
are  bad  elements  at  work  under  the  surface.  At  the  South  a  large 
body  of  the  slaveholders  are  desperate,  and  openly  avow  a  determina- 
tion to  break  up  the  Union At  the  North  everything  is  as 

tranquil  at  this  moment  as  it  is  at  the  South,  or  even  more  so.  But 
not  a  few  persons  in  New  England,  besides  the  open  Abolitionists,  are 
in  favor  of  breaking  up  the  Union,  ....  but  none  except  the  Abo- 
litionists honestly  avowing  their  purposes. 

That  the  South  will  be  indiscreet  enough,  pushed  on  by  its  fanat- 
ics, to  give  ground,  either  sufficient  or  insufficient,  to  these  ambitious 
men  of  the  North  to  make  a  permanent  Northern  party,  is  a  question 
that  will  soon  be  settled.  I  think  it  likely  they  will,  and  that  we 
shall  have  a  sectional  excitement  within  two  years  fiercer  than  the 
one  that  preceded  the  late  Presidential  election That  any  de- 
gree of  wisdom  and  integrity  can  make  Mr.  Buchanan's  administra- 
tion of  the  country  other  than  dangerous  to  our  peace,  both  domestic 
and  foreign,  I  do  not  believe. 


"O' 


To  W.  H.  Prescott. 

Florence,  May  8, 1857. 
Mt  dear  William,  —  I  have  to  thank  you  for  two  most  agreeable 
mementos  of  kindness  ;  one  a  letter  without  date,  written,  I  think, 
in  March,  the  other  a  note  dated  April  4,  touching  my  new  honors  as 


.^ 


350  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

a  grandpapa.  They  were  both  most  welcome.  The  only  thing  I  do 
not  like  in  what  I  hear  about  you,  or  what  you  tell  me  of  yourself,  is 
your  recent  persecution  by  headaches.  Pray  be  careful.  They  were 
diminishing,  I  am  glad  to  know,  at  the  last  dates.  But  the  brain  is 
an  important  part  of  many  people,  —  by  no  means  of  all,  though  all 
may  be  under  the  delusion  that  it  is,  —  and  to  nobody  is  it  of  more 

importance  than  to  such  as  you Besides,  I  cannot  afford  to 

have  anything  untoward  happen  to  you  ;  it  interferes  too  much  with 
my  selfishness  and  my  private  well-being. 

I  have  attended  to  your  little  commissions  with  great  pleasure,  and 
shall  have  equal  pleasure  in  attending  to  any  others  you  may  give 
me.  I  am  not  only  in  such  cases  working  for  a  friend,  but  for  my- 
self and  for  a  multitude  of  outside  barbarians 

We  left  Eome  about  the  middle  of  March,  after  having  passed  a 

pleasanter  winter  there  than  any  I  have  ever  passed  in  Europe 

A  fortnight  in  Naples  was  much  less  satisfactory.  The  city  itself  is 
anything  but  agreeable  ;  but  the  excursions  are  charming,  and  the 
Museo  Borbonico,  containing  in  numberless  rooms  the  spoils  of  Her- 
culaneum  and  Pompeii,  could  be  agreeably  visited  daily  for  almost 
any  length  of  time,  going  occasionally  to  see  the  spots  from  which  its 
treasures  came. 

Another  fortnight  divided  between  Sorrento  and  drives  to  Amalfi, 
Salerno,  Paestum,  etc.,  was  delicious  ;  especially  eight  quiet  days 
spent  in  the  full  burst  of  spring  at  Sorrento,  with  the  most  beautiful 
bay  in  the  world  before  our  windows,  Vesuvius  in  front,  and  the 
Mediterranean  washing  the  foundations  of  the  terrace  on  which  our 
parlor  opened.  The  mornings  that  we  passed  in  the  orange  groves 
there,  where  the  trees  were  in  luxuriant  fruit,  and  the  afternoons  we 
gave  to  going  on  donkeys  over  the  precipitous  hills,  and  once  to  boat- 
ing on  the  still  waters,  we  shall  never  forget.  Those  gardens,  Hes- 
perian fables  true,  —  if  true,  there  only,  —  where  the  ladies  sketched, 
and  ate  the  delicious  fruit  as  it  fell  from  the  trees,  —  left  nothing  to 
desire.  Next  after  Rome,  we  have  undoubtedly  regretted  Sorrento. 
But  enough  of  this. 

Thank  Susan  for  all  her  kindness  to  Lizzie,  of  which  Lizzie  has 
written  often,  and  thank  her  for  the  kind  thoughts  she  sends  us  about 
one  so  dear  to  us,  and  which  we  value  from  her  as  we  should  from 
few.  You  see  I  'WTite  in  haste,  by  my  manuscript.  I  have  no  more 
such  leisure  as  I  had  in  Rome,  dear  old  Rome ;  but  such  as  I  have, 
leisure  and  everything  else,  I  give  unto  you. 

G.  T. 


M.  65.]  NAPLES  TO  TURIN.  351 

To  William  W.  Greenodgh,  Boston. 

Turin,  May  22,  1857. 

My  dear  Greenouqh,  —  I  am  indebted  to  you  for  two  most  agree- 
able letters,  and  I  do  not  suppose  I  shall  ever  pay  you.  But  honesty 
requires  me  to  confess  what  I  owe,  and  give  you  such  a  poor  dividend 
as  I  can  out  of  my  insolvency.  Let  me  add  to  this  unliappy  confes- 
sion, that  I  hope  you  will  let  me  hear  from  you  again,  and  that  you 
will  tell  me  more  about  the  Library ;  concernmg  which  I  know  a 
good  deal  less  than  I  want  to,  nobody  having  intimated  to  me  what 
sort  of  a  building  our  structure  in  Boylston  Street  turns  out  to  be, 
ugly  or  good  looking,  suited  to  its  purpose  or  inconvenient  ;  or 
whether  the  books  that  have  arrived  are  well  bound,  and,  from  their 
contents  and  character,  of  the  classes  that  it  is  desirable  should  early 
be  put  on  our  shelves,  so  as  to  satisfy  the  public  wants  and  make  a 
satisfactory  impression  and  appearance 

I  need  not  tell  you  that  we  passed  a  pleasant  winter  in  Eome. 
It  was  the  pleasantest  of  the  eight  I  have  spent  in  Europe.  I  took 
things  very  easy,  went  where  I  liked,  and  stayed  at  home  when  I  had 
a  mind  to,  and  never  overworked  myself  with  sight-seeing.  The  cli- 
mate, indeed,  I  found  debilitating,  —  as  do  nearly  all  strangers,  — 
and  I  felt  a  good  deal  fatigued  when  I  left  the  city  ;  but  I  enjoyed, 
perhaps  in  consequence  of  this,  eight  days  of  delicious  rest  at  Sor- 
rento soon  afterwards,  more  than  I  ever  enjoyed  any  days  of  mere 
repose  in  my  life.  But  then  I  was  never  in  such  a  delicious  place 
before,  with  such  luxurious  quarters,  to  add  to  its  peculiar  agrements. 
Our  drives  about  all  that  part  of  the  kingdom,  too,  not  merely  those 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Naples,  but  those  to  Salerno  and 
Amalfi,  and  once  a  little  boating,  left  nothing  to  desire,  taken  as  they 
•were  in  the  rich  and  beautiful  spring  season  ;  the  orange  groves,  where 
we  lounged  away  sundry  forenoons,  in  full  fruit,  and  the  hills,  that 
we  climbed  on  donkeys,  covered  with  vines  bursting  forth  in  all 
their  early  luxuriance. 

Since  that  time  —  we  arrived  in  Naples  March  20,  and  left  it 
April  18  —  we  have  spent  a  few  days  in  Rome,  —  from  which  we 
turned  our  faces  with  great  regret,  —  and  a  fortnight  in  Florence, 
where  I  did  a  good  deal  of  work  for  the  Library,  and  then  came  on  to 
Genoa  by  Pisa,  Spezia,  and  the  picturesque  Corniche  road  ;  and  from 
Genoa  by  the  magnificent  government  railroad,  passing  through  a 
tunnel  almost  exactly  two  miles  long,  lined  and  arched  with  brick 
from  one  end  to  the  other.     "We  arrived  here  day  before  yesterday, 


r 


352  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

and  already  I  notice  how  much  the  city  is  altered,  enlarged,  and  im- 
proved since  I  last  saw  it.  Everything,  indeed,  that  I  have  seen  of 
the  kingdom  from  Spezia  hither  is  full  of  a  vitality  and  busy  energy 
which  were  not  to  be  seen  twenty  years  ago,  and  which  are  not  to  be 
found  elsewhere  in  Italy  now. 

I  have  been  here  less  than  two  days,  and  of  course  have  seen  very 
few  people  ;  but  everything  I  have  seen  in  society  has  been  as  strongly 
marked  with  the  changes  and  revolutions  of  the  period  since  I  was 
last  here,  as  the  city  and  its  streets.  The  first  evening  —  having  ar- 
rived at  noon  —  I  went  to  see  the  Marquis  Arconati  and  his  very 
remarkable  wife.  When  I  knew  them  in  1835-38  at  their  castle 
near  Brussels,  in  Heidelberg,  and  in  Paris,  they  were  living  on  the 

income  of  their  great  estates  in  Belgium Now  all  his  estates 

have  been  restored  to  him,  and  he  has,  since  1849,  left  the  domin- 
ions of  Austria  and  established  himself  here,  where  he  enjoys,  amidst 
great  splendor,  the  consideration  and  influence  which  his  personal 
character  and  his  high  position  naturally  give  him.  Several  deputies 
were  in  his  salon,  ....  and  one  or  two  men  of  letters,  attracted  there 
chiefly,  I  think,  by  Mad.  Arconati,  who  is  everywhere  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  intellectual  women  of  her  tune,  but  one  whose  re- 
markable powers  are  rendered  graceful  and  charming  by  a  gentleness 
and  modesty  rarely  found  even  in  those  who  have  only  a  tithe  of 
her  resources 

Yesterday  I  had  another  phasis  of  the  changes  of  the  times.  I 
dined  with  Count  Cavour,  the  most  distinguished  of  all  Italian  states- 
men at  this  moment,  and  the  man  who,  since  1852,  has  been  doing  so 
much  to  infuse  new  life  into  Sardinia.  I  was  surprised  to  find  him 
so  young,  only  forty-seven,  and  not  looking  above  forty  ;  a  round, 
pleasant-faced  gentleman,  who,  to  judge  from  his  countenance  and 
manner,  has  not  a  care  in  the  world.  His  conversation  is  such  as  you 
might  expect  from  his  appearance,  lively  and  agreeable  ;  his  views  of 
everything  on  which  he  talked  strikingly  broad,  but  not,  I  think, 
always  very  exactly  defined  ;  and  his  general  air  natural  but  not  im- 
pressive. His  eye  is  very  quick  ;  it  reminded  me  of  Lord  Mel- 
bourne's,  which  was  the  most  vigilant  I  ever  saw.  Nothing  seemed 
to  escape  the  Italian  Premier,  and  I  think  he  not  only  saw  but  heard 
more  than  anybody  else  in  the  room.  Indeed,  though  there  was  a 
good  Avide  table  between  us,  I  am  satisfied  that  he  heard  what  my 
next  neighbor,  the  Minister  of  the  Interior,  said  to  me,  notwithstand- 
ing his  tones  were  so  low  that  I  was  obliged  to  be  attentive  to  catch 
his  words.     I  was  introduced  to  a  good  many  persons,  whose  names  I 


M.  65.]  CAVOUR  AND  BALBO.  353 

do  not  remember,  and  some  that  I  do,  all,  however,  announced  as  re- 
markable for  something.  One  that  I  noticed  particularly  was  Cibra- 
rio,  formerly  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  ;  another  was  the  principal 
secretary,  on  whom  Cavour  depends  for  work  he  cannot  do  himself. 
,  .  .  .  But  as  I  was  told,  it  was  a  dinner  of  intellectual  men,  such 
as  Count  Cavour  likes  to  give,  and  therefore  such  as  marks  a  great 
change  in  the  tastes  and  character  of  those  who  govern  the  affairs  of 
the  kingdom. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  a  palazzo  from  which  power  has  de- 
parted, —  that,  I  mean,  of  the  Balbos,  —  in  order  to  pay  my  due  re- 
spects to  the  widow  of  Count  Cesare,  who  was  among  my  friends  in 
both  my  other  visits  to  Europe,  and  at  one  time  filled  the  place  now 
filled  by  Cavour.  But  the  rich  old  halls,  in  which  I  once  had  a  most 
gay  and  luxurious  dinner,  looked  very  grave  and  sad.  Everything 
was  respectable,  but  the  change  was  very  great.  All  five  of  his  sons 
were  in  one  of  the  national  battles,  where  their  father  stood  by  the 
side  of  the  King,  and  afterwards  often  said  it  was  the  proudest  hour 
of  his  life.  One  son  was  afterwards  killed  in  the  battle  of  Novara. 
They  were  all  evidently  pleased  to  have  a  friend  of  their  father,  of 
whom  they  knew  something,  come  to  see  them  for  his  sake,  and  I 
was  glad  of  it.  I  have  been  this  morning  to  see  a  good  statue  of  him, 
erected  in  the  public  promenade  ;  but  his  works^  historical  and  politi- 
cal, often  reprinted,  are  his  best  monument. 

We  shall  stay  here  two  or  three  days  more,  and  then  go  to  Paris, 
where  I  hope  to  arrive  about  June  1st,  and  where,  or  in  London,  I 

shall  hope  to  hear  from  you 

Yours  always, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

Mr.  Ticknor  passed  the  month  of  June  in  Paris,  and,  although 
it  was  the  season  when  French  society  was  scattered,  he  saw 
many  of  his  old  friends.  He  also  did  a  great  deal  of  work  for 
the  Library  in  those  thirty  days. 

There  are,  however,  no  letters  from  him  describing  the  pleas- 
ures which  really  marked  this  visit,  because  at  the  end  of  the 
first  fortnight  a  great  alarm  was  brought  in  the  lettjers  from  home, 
which  contained  news  of  the  sudden  and  dancrerous  illness  of 
Mrs.  Dexter.  For  a  day  or  two  the  anxiety  was  distressing,  and 
nothing  could  be  thought  of  but  rapid  preparations  for  returning 
to  America.      Better  accounts  soon  followed,  but  the  pleasant 

w 


354  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

days  were  almost  put  out  of  mind,  and  no  history  of  them  was 
written  out.  One  short  letter  to  Mr.  Prescott  is  dated  after  the 
ill  news  came. 

Paris,  Thursday  Morning,  June  18,  1857. 

Dear  AVilliam,  —  I  thank  you,  I  thank  you,  I  thank  you  a  thou- 
sand times  for  your  thoughtful  kindness  in  sending  me  your  letter 
about  my  darling  child,  and  getting  Dr.  Storer's  note  for  me.  The 
news  was  dreadfully  unexpected,  and  it  needed  all  the  affection  of 

our  fiiends  to  soften  it  to  us Your  tender  words  were  most 

welcome  to  us,  and  your  kindness  to  dear  Lizzie  what  we  shall  never 
forget.  You  and  Susan  have  been  friends  indeed,  as  you  always  are  ; 
God  bless  you  for  it. 

The  two  Annas  and  H.  G.  embark  from  Havre  in  the  Arago  on 
the  30th.  It  is  the  earliest  chance I  must  go  to  England  in- 
stantly after  I  have  seen  them  off,  to  finish  my  business  there,  —  of 
which  there  is  more  than  I  now  like  to  undertake,  and  more  than  I 
have  courage  to  do.  But  it  is  the  finale,  and  a  good  deal  depends 
upon  it,  and  I  shall  do  it.     I  refer  to  the  Library 

But  I  have  no  time  to  write  more,  nor  could  I  write  upon  any  other 

subject  than  the  one  that  fills  this  poor  note,  for  I  have  nothing  else 

in  my  thoughts,  though  I  am  busy  with  things  and  people  all  day 

long.     Your  letter  came  evenmg  before  last  (Tuesday).     I  have  read 

it  a  dozen  times,  and  thanked  you  for  it  many  more  times  than  I 

have  read  it.    Farewell 

Yours  always, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

"VYhen  the  party  first  reached  Paris  the  Due  de  Broglie  was 
still  in  town,  and  also  Madame  de  Stael,  whom  Mr.  Ticknor  had 
never  seen,  but  who  received  him  warmly,  and  in  whom  he  took 
a  great  interest,  as  the  widow  of  Auguste  de  Stael,t  with  whom 
he  had  been  so  intimate  during  his  first  youthful  visit  in  France. 
These  friends,  with  their  delightful  coterie,  —  Doudan,  Yillemain, 
Madame  de  Ste.  Aulaire,  M.  and  Mad.  d'Haussonville,  and  others 
of  the  Due  de  Broglie's  family,  —  renewed  the  old  associations, 
and  there  were  pleasant  dinners  in  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain, 

*  Of  Madame  de  Stael,  7iee  Vernet,  Baron  Bunsen  says  hi  a  letter,  printed  in  his 
Memoirs  :  "  The  combined  impression  made  by  her  manner,  countenance,  and 
conversation,  prepares  one  to  believe,  and  eveu  to  guess,  at  all  the  great  and 
good  qualities  attributed  to  her." 


M.  65.]  PARIS.  355 

and  a  breakfast  at  Mr.  Ticknor's  hotel.  Puibusque,  Ternaux- 
Compans,  Mignet,  came  to  find  their  former  friend,  and  de 
Tocqueville  came  repeatedly,  during  a  few  days  he  was  in  town, 
and  dined  once  with  Mr.  Ticknor.  Ten  days  after  his  arrival  in 
Paris  the  Count  and  Countess  de  Circourt  returned,  from  a  jour- 
ney, to  their  pretty  country-place  at  La  Celle  St.  Cloud,  and  there 
^Madame  de  Circourt,  who  was  then  a  suffering  invalid,  received 
the  Ticknors  at  a  charming  breakfast  alfresco,  on  a  lovely  sum- 
mer day.  Count  Circourt  was  constantly  a  delightful  compan- 
ion in  town,  breakfasting  and  dining  in  the  Place  Vendome, 
dropping  in  for  interesting  talk,  and  showing  hearty  sympathy 
when  the  bad  news  came  from  America. 

M.  Guizot  invited  LIr.  Ticknor  to  Val  Eicher,  where  he  went 
and  had  two  most  agreeable  days ;  and  he  afterwards  went  for 
a  day  or  two  to  Gurcy,  the  country-place  of  M.  d'Haussonville, 
where  he  once  more  saw  the  Due  de  Broglie. 

In  a  letter  to  Count  Circourt,  written  a  few  years  later,  after 
the  death  of  Mad.  de  Circourt,  and  immediately  on  receiving 
news  of  the  death  of  the  Duchesse  de  Eauzan,  Mr.  Ticknor 
sketches  his  experience  in  his  four  visits  to  Paris  :  — 

As  you  say  truly,  the  traditions,  even,  of  that  old  society  which  once 
made  Paris  so  charming  are  already  among  the  things  of  the  past. 
Its  last  relics  lie  buried  with  Madame  de  Circourt  and  Madame  de 
Eauzan.  What  I  saw  of  it  was  in  1817,  in  the  salon  of  the  dying 
Madame  de  Stael,  in  that  of  Madame  de  Chateaubriand  and  Madame 
Constant  ;  then,  in  1818  and  1819,  in  the  more  brilliant  salons  of  the 
Duchesse  de  Duras  and  the  Duchesse  de  Broglie,  and  of  the  Comtesse 
de  Ste.  Aulaire,  not  forgetting  the  Saturday  evenings  at  the  palace, 
where  the  Duchesse  de  Duras  received,  with  inimitable  graciousness 
and  dignity,  on  behalf  of  the  King,  as  wife  of  the  first  Gentleman 
of  the  Bedchamber;  and  finally  in  the  winter  of  1837-38,  which 
we  had  the  pleasure  of  passing  in  Paris,  when  the  Duchesse  de  Broglie 
and  Madame  de  Eauzan  shared  with  Madame  de  Circourt  the  inheri- 
tance they  had  received  from  their  mothers,  and  Guizot  and  Thiers 
and  Mole  had  salons  with  very  little  of  the  old  feminine  grace  and 
gentleness  in  them. 

But  this  was  the  last  that  I  saw  of  what  remained  from  the  old 
French  salons.     When  we  were  in  Paris  in  1857,  the  Duchesse  de 


356  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 


Raiizan  was  there  with  her  charming  daughter,  the  Duchesse  de 
Blacas  ;  but  it  was  the  summer  season,  Madame  de  Circourt  was  ill, 
and,  though  at  the  Due  de  Broglie's  and  at  Thiers'  and  at  Mad.  d'Haus- 
sonville's  —  both  in  towTi  and  at  Gurcy  —  I  met  most  agreeable 
people,  yet  it  was  plain  that  all  was  changed.  It  was  another  atmos- 
phere. Old  times  were  forgotten  ;  the  old  manners  gone.  And 
what  is  to  come  in  their  place  ?  Paris  is  externally  the  most  mag- 
nificent capital  in  Europe,  and  is  becoming  daily  more  brilliant  and 
attractive.  But  where  are  the  old  salons,  —  their  grace,  their  charm- 
ing and  peculiar  wit,  their  conversation  that  impressed  its  character 
upon  the  language  itself,  and  made  it,  in  many  respects,  what  it  is  ? 

Four  weeks  passed  away  in  this,  Mr.  Ticknor's  last  visit  to 
Paris,  and  on  the  29th  of  June  the  whole  party  travelled  to 
Havre,  and  all  went  on  board  the  American  steamer  Arago, 
wliich  was  to  touch  at  Southampton  on  its  way  to  Xew  York. 
The  last  letters  from  home  had  brought  good  accounts  of  Mrs. 
Dexter's  recovery,  and  a  package  received  at  Southampton  con- 
firmed these  good  reports.  Mr.  Ticknor  parted  there  from  his 
wife  and  daughter,  and  when  they  sailed  for  America  he  went  to 
London  to  complete  the  work  he  had  undertaken. 

He  was  there  the  guest  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Twisleton,  who  were 
at  home  in  their  pretty  honse  at  Kutland  Gate,  and  his  time  was 
filled,  as  in  the  previous  year,  with  a  perpetual  contrast  of  really 
arduous  and  earnest  work  w4th  the  excitement  of  a  most  stimu- 
lating intellectual  society  in  every  form.  All  this  is  described 
in  his  daily  letters  to  Mrs.  Ticknor. 


M.  65.]  LONDON.  357 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

London.  —  Letters  to  Mrs.  Ticknor.  —  Harrow.  —  British  Museum  Bead- 
ing-Room.  —  A7iecdote  of  Scott.  —  JV.  R.  Greg.  —  Tocqueville.  —  Ma- 
caulay.  —  Wilson.  —  S])anish  Studies.  —  Letter  to  Mr.  Prescott. — 
Luc  d'Aumale. 

To  Mrs.  Ticknor. 

London,  July  3, 1857. 

Dearest  "Wife,  —  I  am  here  safe  in  gentle  Ellen's"^  kind  care.     I 

wish  I  could  add  that  I  am  easy  in  my  thoughts I  want  to 

know  every  hour  how  you  are.     I  want  to  seem  to  do  something  for 

you I  wish  heartily,  half  the  time,  that  I  had  never  left  the 

Arago,  and  sometimes  think  that  the  storm  in  which  I  escaped  over 
the  side  of  that  vessel  was  a  sort  of  warning  to  me  not  to  leave  it. 

But  there  is  no  use  in  all  this  ;   rather  harm Wet  did  not 

reach  Southampton  till  the  five-o'clock  train  bad  been  gone  ten  min- 
utes. So  we  made  ourselves  comfortable,  with  a  mutton-chop  and  a 
cup  of  tea,  at  an  excellent  inn  there,  and  at  fifteen  minutes  past  seven 
took  the  next  train,  reached  London  at  ten,  and  Eutland  Gate  at  half 
past. 

Ellen  and  the  Lyells  had  waited  for  me  till  half  past  nine,  and 
then  giving  up  all  hope  of  me,  they  went  to  their  respective  parties. 
....  At  midnight,  giving  them  up  in  my  turn,  I  went  to  bed.  The 
first  thing  yesterday  morning  I  had  a  note  from  Ellen,  saj'ing  that  if 
I  intended  to  accept  an  invitation  —  which  with  others  was  on  the 
table  waiting  for  me  —  to  go  to  "  the  Speeches,"  or  annual  exliibition 
at  Harrow,  I  must  be  at  breakfast  before  ten.  So  I  was  down  in  sea- 
son, and  she  came  immediately  after,  and  received  me  most  sweetly 
and  affectionately  ;   Twisleton  followed,  with  hearty  kindness.     "We 

breakfasted,  and  set  off  for  Harrow  at  once After  the  exercises 

came  lunch,  of  course,  partly  in  the  house  of  the  Principal,  Dr. 
Vaughan,  —  soon  to  be  a  bishop,  they  say,  —  and  partly  under  a  tent, 

*  Mrs.  Twisleton. 

t  Miss  Cusbman  and  Miss  Stebbins  were  bis  companions  on  tbis  journey  to 
London, 


358  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

in  beautiful  open  grounds,  the  ladies  often  sitting  on  the  grass,  and 
looking  as  gay  as  the  flower-beds  around  them.  A  good  many  ac- 
quaintances were  there,  —  the  Milmans,  who  asked  most  kindly  for  you 
and  Lizzie,  the  Godleys,  etc.,  etc.,  besides  lots  of  new  acquaintances, 
the  best  of  whom  were  Dean  Trench  and  the  Adderleys.  With  these 
last  we  drove  into  town,  and  I  got  out  as  nearly  as  I  could  to  Harley 
Street,  took  a  cab,  and  hurried  to  the  Lyells'.  Dear  Lady  Lyell  was 
dressing  to  go  out,  but  came  down  at  once,  and  was  as  kind  and  good 
as  ever.  So  was  Sir  Charles.  But  I  did  not  stop  long.  It  was  din- 
ner-time for  both 

We  had  nobody  at  dinner  except  Professor  Brodie,  from  Oxford, 
son  of  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie,  and  a  good  pleasant  talker.  But  after 
ten  I  was  very  sleepy,  and  Ellen  having  disappeared,  I  went  to  bed. 
....  This  morning,  however,  I  find  I  made  a  mistake  in  hurrying 
oflF  so.  Ellen  had  only  gone  up  stairs  to  dress  in  Spanish  costume  for 
a  fancy  ball,  and  intended  to  show  herself  to  me  before  she  went.     It 

was  a  pity  I  missed  it I  dine  to-day  with  the  Lyells,  —  who 

still  have  the  Pertz  family  with  them,  —  and  in  the  evening  go  to  the 
Horners' 

I  am  just  setting  out  for  Bates's  and  the  British  Museum,  so  as  to 
begin  work  first  of  all.  How  much  there  will  be  of  it,  or  what  else 
I  shall  do,  I  cannot  yet  foresee.  But  you  will  know  just  as  fast  as  I 
can  learn  it  myself.  ....  I  am  sorry  to  write  in  so  bad  a  hand  this 
morning,  but  I  should  not  have  had  time  to  say  half  I  have  done,  if  I 
had  \vritten  carefully  and  plain.  And  even  now  I  have  not  said  what 
I  most  want  to  say,  and  that  is,  to  send  my  best  love  and  many  kisses 
to  darling  Lizzie,  of  whom  it  seems  to  me  I  think  more  and  more, 
now  I  think  of  you  both  more  together.     Love  to  Dexter,  of  course. 

LoxDOisr,  July  4,  1857. 

When  I  am  alone  there  seems  no  way  of  preventing  myself  from 
being  assailed  by  anxious  thoughts  about  you  and  our  home,  except 
by  writing  to  you  of  all  I  see  and  do  here  ;  a  proceeding  which  neces- 
sarily turns  my  mind  upon  what  is  nearest  to  me.  And  so  I  ^\Tote 
to  you  all  my  leisure  yesterday,  and  so  I  suppose  I  shall  write  to  you 
all  my  leisure  to-day.     I  left  off  my  hurried  despatch  just  as  I  was 

going  out I  drove  first  to  Mr.  Bates's.     "  He  is  not  in  towTi," 

was  the  answer  of  the  bowing  porter.  I  was  a  little  disappointed  not 
to  begin  my  business  at  once  ;  but  it  is  of  no  great  consequence 

Failing  in  this  I  made  half  a  dozen  \dsits.  First  I  went  to  Lord 
Fitzwilliam's.     He  was  at  home,  so  were  Lady  Charlotte  and  George. 


JE.  65.]  BRITISH  MUSEUM.  359 

....  They  were  all  as  kind  as  possil)le,  and  made  all  sorts  of  in- 
quiries about  you  ;  Lady  Charlotte  really  takes  it  to  heart  that  she 

misses  you  again,  and  sent  most  affectionate  messages  to  you 

I  fountl  nobody  else  at  home,  but  Lord  and  Lady  Stanhope 

They  were  very  agreeable,  and  I  stayed  and  gossiped  a  good  while. 
....  Panizzi,  at  the  British  Museum,  said  that  Lord  Holland  *  had 
told  him  I  was  come,  and  therefore  he  felt  sure  he  should  see  me 
soon.  He  carried  me  at  once  to  the  new  reading-room,  which  you 
know  has  a  magnificent  dome,  a  few  feet  larger  in  diameter  than  that 
of  St.  Peter's.     The  effect  of  the  whole  is  very  fine  ;  the  arrangements 

and  details  are  admirable Ellen  says  it  is  the  finest  room  she 

has  ever  been  in.  I  am  not  sure  but  I  must  say  the  same  ;  even  with 
the  Pantheon  fresh  in  my  mind.  Certainly  I  have  never  seen  any 
room  so  completely  adapted  to  its  grand  purpose  of  intellectual  labor 
for  a  large  number  of  persons.  Indeed,  I  am  much  disposed  —  as  I 
hear  others  are  —  to  think  that  Panizzi  has  succeeded  in  making  it 
what  he  boasted  to  me  last  year  he  would  make  it,  namely,  a  more  de- 
sirable place  for  literary  work  than  any  man  in  London  can  find  in  his 
own  library,  however  ample  and  luxurious  that  library  may  be.  For 
onl}''  think  of  having  a  dozen  walking  bibliographical  indexes,  —  like 
Watts,  Nichols,  and  the  rest  of  them,  —  ready,  each  in  his  department, 
to  tell  you  just  what  books  you  should  ask  for  out  of  the  million  at 
your  command,  and  then  to  turn  and  find  an  intelligent  attendant  — 
or  even  two  or  three  —  always  ready  to  bring  you  whatever  you  may 

need Parnell's  tale  of  Edwin  and  the  Fairy  Feast  is  nothing 

to  it.  I  intend  to  have  great  comfort  there,  and  do  a  good  deal  of 
work. 

When  I  came  home,  between  four  and  five,  I  went  in  to  see  Lady 
Theresa,  and  found  her  in  the  midst  of  a  fashionable  matinee  musi- 
cale She  is  as  winning  in  her  manners  as  ever,  and  as  attrac- 
tive.    She  told  me  to  give  her  love  to  you  and  tell  you  how  much  she 

felt  for  your  anxiety She  would  have  had  me  stay  and  talk 

with  her  when  the  music  should  be  over,  but  I  excused  mj'-self,  and 
told  her  I  would  come  another  time  soon. 

I  dined  with  the  Lyells  ;  nobody  at  table  but  solid,  good  Dr.  Pertz 
and  Mrs.  Pertz,  for  they  were  all  to  go  off  —  and  I  too  —  at  a  little 
after  nine,  the  Lyells  to  the  Queen's  concert,  and  the  rest  of  us  to 
Mrs.  Horner's.  The  dinner  was  pleasant,  a  little  learned,  a  little  gay, 
and  altoLrether  sensible 

The  party  at  Mrs.  Horner's  was  just  like  the  one  you  and  I  went 

*  The  fourth  and  last  Lord  Holland,  son  of  his  former  host. 


360  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

to  there  last  year.     We  had  Gibson  and  Lady  Bell,  Edward  Bunbury, 

Colonel  Lyell,  and  perhaps  a  dozen  more Lady  Bell  and  Mrs. 

Horner  sent  you  abundance  of  affectionate  messages. 

I  talked  a  good  deal  with  Richardson,  Scott's  old  friend,  who  ap- 
pears so  largely  and  pleasantly  in  the  Life  by  Lockhart Tell- 
ing him  how  fine  I  thought  Scott's  colloquial  powers,  he  answered, 
"  Yes,  but  they  were  never  so  fine  as  when  he  was  having  a  jolly  good 
time  with  two  or  three  friends."  He  then  described  to  me  w^hat  he 
considered  the  finest  specimen  he  had  ever  had  of  them.  It  was  w^hen 
nobody  was  present  but  Tom  Campbell.  They  dined  together  at 
Tom's,  in  Sydenham,  near  London,  —  a  very  modest  little  cottage, 
■where  I  dined  in  1815,  —  and  where  the  scene  of  this  talk  was  chiefly 
laid  at  just  about  the  same  period.  They  dined  early,  but  by  ten 
o'clock,  brilliant  as  the  conversation  was,  Tom  was  past  enjoying  it, 
and  nothing  remained  for  them  but  to  carry  him  up  stairs  and  put 
him  to  bed.  Scott,  however,  -was  neither  disturbed  nor  exhausted,  and 
they  two  repaired  to  the  village  tavern,  and  ordering  beefsteaks  and 
hot  brandy-and-water,  Scott  poured  out  floods  of  anecdote  and  poetry, 
and  talked  on  till  three,  when,  "wdth  undiminished  resources  and  as 
bright  as  ever,  he  reluctantly  went  to  bed.  Next  morning  they  were 
up  in  good  season.  Tom  came  over  to  them,  a  little  the  worse  for 
wear,  but  not  much.  Scott  talked  on,  more  brilliantly,  if  possible, 
than  ever.  At  eleven  they  had  mutton-chops  and  beer  for  breakfast, 
and  then  all  three  went  off  to  London,  Scott  amusing  them  all  the 
way,  as  —  according  to  Richardson's  account  —  men  were  never 
amused  before  or  since.  The  whole  story  is,  no  doubt,  characteristic 
of  the  period,  as  w^ell  as  of  the  men 

I  was  up  in  good  season  this  morning,  —  the  glorious  Fourth,  —  and 
gave  as  many  hours  as  I  could  hold  out  to  work.  I  went  to  the  Bar- 
ings' about  business,  ....  did  several  errands,  and  then  went  for  four 
hours  to  the  British  Museum.  Nothing  could  be  better  than  the 
arrangements,  and  the  good-nature  with  which  my  rather  peculiar 
case  was  understood  and  met.  I  say  peculiar,  because,  whereas  other 
people  want  particular  books  and  ask  for  them,  I  do  not  know  what  I 
want,  except  that  I  want  books  I  have  never  heard  of  in  old  Spanish 
literature.  So  kind  Mr.  Watts  took  me  to  the  place  where  they  stand, 
far  in  one  of  the  recesses  of  that  vast  pile  of  building,  and  gave  me 
the  services  of  one  of  his  assistants.  This  person  took  down  and 
showed  me  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  curious  volumes,  and  re- 
placed them  all.  I  was  familiar  with  all  but  twenty  of  them.  Of 
these  twenty  I  took  the  numbers  and  titles,  and  shall  go  on  Monday 


M.  e,^.]  ENGLISH  BEAUTY.  3G1 


to  the  grand  reading-room,  estaljlisli  myself  tliere,  and  send  for  them 
to  examine  their  contents  and  make  such  memoranda  about  them  as  I 
may  find  expedient.  And  so  I  shall  go  on  till  I  have  gone  through 
all  the  ohl  Spanish  books,  a  collection  inferior  to  my  own,  but,  of 
course,  containing  odd  and  curious  things  that  I  do  not  possess.  Thus 
fjir,  however,  I  have  found  nothing  of  any  considerable  value,  nor  in- 
deed anything  of  extreme  rarity 

At  home,  ....  I  had  a  long  visit  from  William  Greg,  and  an  ex- 
cellent talk  with  him 

July  5.  —  I  breakfasted  with  Greg,  having  desired  him  to  ask  no- 
body else,  as  I  wanted  to  have  a  thorough  talk  with  him.  I  had  it, 
and  enjoyed  it  very  much  for  two  hours.  Tell  Hillard  that  he  agrees 
with  us  exactly  about  the  present  position  of  afifairs  in  America,  and 
understands  them  better  than  anybody  I  have  seen  since  I  came  from 
home. 

After  I  came  home,  we  had  a  visit  from  Tocqueville,  as  agreeable  as 
ever.  Then  I  drove  out  to  Macaulay^s,  who  seemed  uncommonly 
glad  to  see  me,  and  talked  after  his  fashion  for  half  an  hour,  "with 
great  richness  and  knowledge,  chiefly  on  female  beauty,  which,  by 
the  most  curious  citations  from  Lady  Mary  Wortley  Montagu's  Let- 
ters, from  Sir  Charles  Grandison,  Congreve's  Plays,  and  such  out- 
of-the-way  places,  he  proved  had  greatly  increased  in  England  since 
the  disappearance  of  small-pox.  It  was  very  amusing,  but  the  first 
rush,  as  he  comes  down  upon  you,  is  like  a  shower-bath,  or  rather 
like  a  waterspout.  But  you  will  remember.  Only,  I  think,  his 
manner  grows  a  little  more  declamatory. 

On  my  way  hack  I  stopped  at  Holland  House,  and  again  met 
Tocqueville,  and  two  or  three  agreeable  people.  But  I  could  not  stop 
long.  The  old  house  is  much  altered,  and  made  very  luxurious,  but 
I  missed  things  I  should  have  heen  glad  to  see  in  the  library,  the 
dining-room,  and  the  drawing-room.  Some  of  it,  too,  was  a  little  fine, 
though  on  the  whole  it  is  much  improved  and  better  kept.  From 
Holland  House  I  drove  to  Hallam's.  He  is  little  altered  since  last 
year,  dines  out  sometimes,  he  told  me,  with  old  friends,  and  talks  as 
fast  as  ever He  asked  me  to  dine  for  Tuesday,  but  I  am  en- 
gaged, and  as  he  goes  out  of  town  in  a  few  days,  I  may  not  see  him 
again.     He  said  that  he  is  just  upon  eighty  years  old 

I  dined  with  Mr.  Wilson,  a  member  of  Parliament,  Financial  Sec- 
retary of  the  Treasury,  owner,  and  formerly  editor,  of  the  "  Econo- 
mist," and  the  person  on  whom  the  government  depends  in  questions 
of  banking  and  finance.     He  never  reads  a  book  ;  he  gets  all  his 

VOL.    II.  16 


362  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

knowledge  from  documents  and  conversation,  as  Greg  tells  me,  that 
is,  at  first  liand.  But  he  talks  uncommonly  well  on  all  subjects  ; 
strongly,  and  with  a  kind  of  original  force,  that  you  rarely  witness. 
He  has  a  young  wife,  and  three  nice,  grown-up  daughters,  who,  with 
Greg,  a  barrister,  —  whose  name  I  did  not  get, —  one  other  person,  and 
myself,  filled  up  a  very  luxurious  table,  as  far  as  eating  and  drinking 
are  concerned.  And  who  do  you  think  that  other  person  was  ?  No- 
body less  than  Madame  Mohl ;  ^  who  talked  as  fast  and  as  amusingly 
as  ever,  full  of  good-natured  kindness,  with  a  little  subacid  as  usual, 
to  give  it  a  good  flavor.  The  young  ladies  Greg  accounts  among  the 
most  intelligent  of  his  acquaintance,  and  they  certainly  talk  French 
as  few  English  girls  can  ;  for  Tocqueville  came  in  after  dinner,  and  we 
all  changed  language  at  once,t  except  the  Master,  who  evidently  has 
but  one  tongue  in  his  head,  and  needs  but  one,  considering  the  strong 

use  he  makes  of  it Mad.  Mohl  was  very  kind  about  you,  and 

assured  me  that  I  might  consider  Lizzie  quite  well  by  this  time.  My 
heart  aches  to  think  that  I  can't.  But  patience.  To-morrow,  letters 
will  come.  If  they  could  only  come  from  the  middle  of  the  Atlan- 
tic too ! 

July  6.  —  No  letters  !  no  steamer  !  I  waited  till  the  last  moment 
this  morning,  hoping  Ellen's  would  come  before  I  went  to  breakfast 
with  Macaulay.  The  postman  brought  sundry  notes  of  no  regard, 
but  no  letters 

The  breakfast  at  Macaulay's  was  very  agreeable.     I   suppose   I 

ought  to  say  very  brilliant.    We  had  just  nine  persons Senior, 

Tocqueville,  Lord  Stanley,  Lord  Glenelg,  Lord  Roden,  Lord  Gran- 
ville, and  Lord  Stanhope,  with  the  Master  and  myself,  made  up 
Horace  Walpole's  number.  We  all  walked  for  half  an  hour  on  the 
beautiful  lawn  behind  the  house,  talking  in  squads,  English  where 

Macaulay  was,   French  for  Tocqueville's   humor The  whole 

breakfast  was  very  agreeable.  We  talked  about  everything,  and 
wearied  with  nothing,  ending  with  another  half -hour  on  the  la^vm,  in 

rich  sunshine,  where  I  talked  all  the  time  with  Lord  Granville 

At  half  past  twelve  I  drove  to  the  British  Museum,  and  w^orked  there 
four  hours  most  satisfactorily After  this  I  made  a  few  visits. 

....  I  had  just  time,  on  returning  home,  to  dress  for  dinner 
at  Lord  Fitz William's.     The  family  portion  of  the  party  was  large,  as 

*  Formerly  Miss  Clarke.     See  ante,  pp.  106  and  124,  etc. 

t  At  a  still  later  period  of  his  life,  when  Mr.  Ticknor's  French  might  have 
been  supposed  to  have  lost  some  of  its  freshness,  a  French  lady  of  cultivation 
said  to  Mr.  Hillard,  "Monsieur  Ticknor  parle  rran9ais  delicieusement." 


M.  65.]  BREAKFASTS.  363 

you  might  expect.  But  beside  tliis  we  had  Wikle,  a  Queen's  Coun- 
sel of  eminence  ;  Lord  Monteagle,  an  excellent  talker  ;  Lord  Bur- 
lington, a  man  of  known  ability,  but  shy  ;  and  Bouverie  and  his 

wife The  conversation  was  good  and  strong,  chiefly  in  the 

hands  of  Lord  Monteagle,  —  Spring  Rice,  —  who  continued  it  after- 
wards in  the  saloon,  where  we  became  so  animated  that  I  did  not  get 
home  till  half  past  eleven. 

July  7.  —  ....  Ellen  had  a  breakfast-party  this  morning ;  Senior, 
Merivale,  Godley,  —  our  old  friend,"^ —  Adderley,  Trench,  —  Dean  of 
"Westminster  in  place  of  poor  Buckland,  one  of  the  men  I  am  most 

glad  to  meet,  —  and  Sparks The  talk  was  excellent.     Ellen 

was  charming  at  the  head  of  her  own  table 

Juhj  8.  —  The  letters  came  this  morning  by  the  early  post.  Thank 
Heaven,  everything  was  right  on  the  22d  of  June.  I  hope  I  feel  grate- 
ful in  some  degree  as  I  should,  but  it  seems  impossible.  And  now  I 
must  wait  till  I  can  hear  from  you,  and  that  will  be  a  long  time ; 
two  passages  across  the  unsociable  ocean.  But  you  have  made  two 
thirds  of  one  of  them 

Sir  Edmund  Head  came  in  immediately  after  breakfast.t  .... 
He  is  looking  very  well,  and  says  he  is  better  than  he  has  been  for 

many  years He  is  to  come  again  to-morrow  morning,  and  I 

shall  go  with  him  to  Lady  Head,  and  he  with  me  afterwards  to  the 
British  Museum 

I  went  to  the  Duchess  of  Argyll's  party There  were  a  good 

many  people  there  whom  I  knew,  more  than  I  expected,  and  I  had  a 
very  good  time.  The  Lyells,  Lord  Burlington,  —  who  is  to  be  Duke 
of  Devonshire,  and  is  fit  to  be,  —  Stirling,  Lord  and  Lady  Wensley- 
dale,  Mrs.  Norton,  and  I  suppose  a  dozen  more. 

July  9.  —  We  had  a  most  delightful  breakfast  at  Twisleton's  this 
morning  :  Tocqueville,  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Senior,  Stirling,  Lord 
Glenelg,  Lord  Monteagle,  Merivale, — again,  and  I  was  glad  of  it,  —  Sir 
George  Lewis,  and  Lord  Lansdowne,  —  a  little  older  than  he  was  last 
year.  The  talk  was  admirable,  and  I  was  struck  anew  with  the  abun- 
dance  of  Lewis's  knowledge  ;  but  I  have  not  time  to  tell  you,  and  only 
see  how  many  pages  I  have  written.  I  went  home  with  Head,  and 
was  most  kindly,  even  affectionately,  received  by  Lady  Head,  who 

could  not  say  too  much  of  her  regret  at  not  seeing  you We 

then  went  to  Stirling's,  and  looked  over  his  pictures  and  things,  very 

*  Mr.  Godley,  a  man  of  most  agreeable  qualities  and  culture,  had  been  in 
Boston  a  few  years  before  this  time, 
t  Lately  arrived  in  England  for  a  visit. 


364  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 


curious,  rich,  and  rare,  and  I  worked  a  little  among  his  Spanish  books, 
and  mean  to  work  more,  for  there  are  good  things  among  them 

From  Stirling's,  Head  and  I  went  to  the  British  Museum,  where, 
as  he  truly  said,  it  was  amusing  enough  that  I  should  lionize  him. 
But  he  had  not  been  there,  of  course,  for  five  years,  since  which  every- 
thing is  changed.  He  agreed  with  all  whom  I  have  heard  speak  of 
it,  that  the  reading-room  is  the  finest  room  in  Europe,  taking  out 
churches.  I  am  more  and  more  impressed  %\'ith  it.  I  then  made 
some  calls,  finding  no  one  at  home  but  Lord  Ashburton,  with  whom 
I  had  a  very  interesting  talk  ;  then,  after  a  walk  for  exercise  with 
Twisleton,  in  Kensington  Gardens,  —  the  first  I  have  been  able  to 
take  since  I  came  to  London,  —  we  passed  a  quiet  and  happy  evening 
together,  having  refused  to  go  to  Milnes',  *  lest  we  should  all  be  quite 
worn  out  with  dinners. 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  kind,  gentle,  and  loving  Ellen  is  to  me,  mak- 
ing me  all  but  happy,  and  relieving  my  anxious  thoughts  more  than 
they  could  be  relieved  anywhere  else,  separated  as  I  am  from  you  all. 
Nor  can  I  tell  you  how  much  she  is  liked  in  society  here,  the  very 
best  of  it I  hear  of  her  on  all  sides.  She  is  certainly  a  charm- 
ing creature,  and  if  I  were  to  fail  to  love  her,  I  should  be  very  un- 
grateful. 

A  good  many  people  come  to  see  me,  and  I  of  course  return  their 
calls,  but  I  have  not  time  to  tell  you  of  them,  still  less  to  repeat, 
as  I  intended  to  do  when  I  began  this  volume,  some  of  their  good 
things 

July  10.  —  I  am  invited  thrice  to  breakfast  this  morning,  and  al- 
though I  am  sorry  to  miss  Dean  Trench,  and  should  haA^e  liked  the 
company  at  Senior's,  including  Lesseps,  —  whose  father  I  knew  at  Lis- 
bon in  1818,  —  yet  I  rather  think  I  am  in  luck  in  being  first  engaged 

to  Lord  Stanhope The  breakfast  was  first-rate  in  all  points, 

company  and  talk.     Lady  Evelyn  Stanhope  was  the  first  person  I 

saw,  —  young,  pretty,  unmarried The  next  was  Tocqueville  ; 

....  then  came  the  Lyells,  Lord  Aberdeen,  and  Lord  Caernarvon, 
a  young  nobleman  of  great  fortune  and  promise,  who,  a  few  years  ago, 

carried  off  the  first  honors  at  Oxford.    All  talked  French This 

gave  Tocqueville,  of  course,  the  advantage,  and  nobody  was  sorry  for 
it.  He  did  his  best,  both  with  discussion  and  anecdote,  and  nobody 
can  do  better.  The  consequence  was,  that  we  sat  late,  two  hours  and 
a  half  ;  some  of  us,  perhaps,  lingering  because  we  remembered  that 
it  is  Tocqueville's  last  day.     Before  we  separated,  he  came  up  to  me 

*  Monckton  Milnes,  now  Lord  Houghton. 


M.  65.]  HOUSE  OF  LORDS.  365 

and  gave  me  a  long  message  of  regrets  for  you  and  Anna,  ....  add- 
ing, that  if  either  of  us  want  anything  in  Paris  that  he  can  do  for  us, 
he  shall  always  be  charmed  to  do  it I  sat  next  to  Lord  Aber- 
deen, and  had  some  very  interesting  talk  with  that  wise  old  states- 
man. Lady  Stanhope  was  charming,  as  I  think  she  always  is,  and  so 
was  Lady  Lyell. 

The  next  three  or  four  hours  I  spent  in  hard  work  at  the  British 
Museum,  and  then  went  by  appointment  to  the  Athenceum,  and  was 
taken  by  Lord  Stanhope  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  placed  on  the 
"  steps  of  the  throne,"  —  as  the  place  is  called,  and  really  is,  —  to  hear 
a  great  debate  on  the  "  Oaths  Bill,"  or  the  bill  that  should  permit 

Jews  to  sit  in  Parliament I  was  in   a  good   neighborhood. 

Milman  stood  next  to  me,  and  introduced  me  to  Elwin,  editor  of  the 

"  Quarterly,"  and  I  talked  with  both  a  good  deal Sundry  of 

the  lords  came  to  the  rail,  which  separated  me  from  their  consecrated 
body,  and  spoke  to  me,  —  Lord  Stanhope,  Lord  Glenelg,  Lord  Gran- 
ville, and  others The  debate  was  very  exciting,  if  not  very 

able,  and  produced  all  its  effect  in  that  grand  hall,  so  imposing,  so 
suited  to  its  grave  purpose.  Earl  Granville  opened  the  discussion. 
He  is  a  graceful,  fluent  speaker,  not  very  powerful,  but  a  man  who 
produces  upon  you  the  impression  that  he  is  in  earnest,  and  means  to 
be  fair.  Lord  Stanley  followed,  vehement  and  subtle,  but  not  per- 
suasive. Then  came  Lord  Lyndhurst,  compact,  logical,  and  very 
exact  in  his  choice  of  language.  These  were  the  three  principal 
speakers.  Of  the  three.  Lord  Lyndhurst  was  decidedly  the  ablest  as 
a  debater,  and  what  he  said  lost  none  of  its  force  from  the  circum- 
stance that  he  is  eighty-five  years  old,  and  more The  bill  was 

lost  by  thirty-four,  as  was  foreseen.  But  I  did  not  wait  for  the  di- 
vision ;  I  was  too  tired.  I  had  given  up  a  pleasant  dinner,  and  at 
twelve  o'clock,  —  having  had  not  so  much  as  a  drop  of  water  since 
the  brilliant  breakfast  of  the  morning,  —  I  went  to  the  Athen?eum, 
ordered  mutton-chops  and  sherry,  and  enjoyed  my  dinner,  I  assure 
you 

July  11.  —  I  breakfasted  tete-d-tete  with  Mr.  Bates,  and  had  a  long 
and  very  satisfactory  conversation  with  him  about  the  Library.  Then 
I  went  to  Stirling's,  and  worked  in  his  library  two  or  three  hours,  till 
I  was  obliged  to  go  and  make  some  calls,  after  which  ....  I  came 
home  and  rested  till  it  was  time  to  go  to  dinner  at  the  Lyells',  where 
I  had  an  uncommonly  good  time  with  the  Heads,  and  a  small  party 
consisting  of  the  Pertzes  and  two  or  three  others.  Ellen  and  Twisle- 
ton  were  engaged  elsewhere,  for  which  I  was  sorry,  for  Sir  Edmund 
was  in  great  feather,  and  very  amusing 


366  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

To  W.  H.  Prescott. 

London,  July  13,  1857. 

Dear  William,  —  I  must  write  to  you  in  this  hurry-skurry  of  a 
London  season,  if  it  be  only  to  thank  you  and  dear  Susan  for  your 
great  kindness  to  our  darling  Lizzie.  It  is  mentioned  in  all  our 
letters  from  home,  and  sinks  into  all  our  hearts 

I  am  very  busy.  I  have  nearly  got  through  with  everything  I 
wish  to  discuss  with  Mr.  Bates,  who  continues  to  entertain  most 
generous  purposes  towards  the  Library  ;  and  I  have  done  a  good  deal 
of  work  in  the  British  Museum  and  elsewhere.  But  I  have  plenty 
more  to  do,  and  I  want  to  make  considerable  purchases  of  books,  or 
at  least  make  arrangements  for  them.  Still,  everything  will  depend 
on  what  I  may  hear. 

I  am  living  with  the  Twisletons,  in  a  most  agreeable  manner, 
petted  enough  to  spoil  me  outright.  They  live  almost  next  door  to 
Sir  George  Lewis  and  Lord  Morley, — not  forgetting  Lady  Theresa, — 
close  by  Reeve  of  the  "  Edinburgh  Review,"  and  within  easy  distance 

of  Senior,  Macaulay,  Lord  Holland But  their  social  position 

is  better  than  all  their  surroundings  on  Hyde  Park It  almost 

amuses  me  sometimes  to  hear  such  people  as  old  Lord  Glenelg,  old 
Lord  Monteagle,  Lord  Ashburton,  and  your  friends  Lord  and  Lady 
Wensleydale,  talk  of  our  own  little  Ellen,  who  is  really  as  attractive 
a  lady,  and  as  agreeable,  as  any  I  meet  in  society.  As  for  Lord 
Lansdowne,  —  now  seventy-seven,  —  who  breakfasted  here  the  other 
morning,  his  manners  to  her  showed  a  mixture  of  affection  and 
gallantry  that  it  was  delightful  to  witness.  Indeed,  the  sort  of  ad- 
miration I  everywhere  hear  expressed  for  her  is  truly  remarkable, 
when  you  remember  that  five  years  ago  she  was  a  stranger  here,  and 
that  this  society  which  now  claims  her  as  an  ornament  is  the  most 
exclusive  society  of  London,  and  the  one  most  reluctant  to  receive 
anybody  into  its  intimacy  or  association. 

And  speaking  of  people  who  are  admired,  reminds  me  of  Tocque- 
ville,  who  has  been  here  some  time,  and,  as  Senior  and  Lord  Stanhope 
said  the  other  day,  —  looking  from  quite  different  positions,  —  he  has 
been  decidedly  the  lion  of  the  season.  I  have  met  him  quite  often, 
and  though  he  has  an  English  wife,  and  talks  English  well  enough, 
he  has  generally  been  humored  by  keeping  the  conversation  in 
French.  Indeed,  it  was  well  worth  while  ;  for  nobody  talks  as  well 
as  he  does,  not  even  Villemain  or  Mignet,  who  have  the  more  brill- 
iant epigrammatic  style  of  recent  fashion,  while  he  talks  with  the 


M.  65.]  LETTER  TO  MR.   PRESCOTT.  3G7 


beautiful  grace  and  finish  of  the  ancien  r^gvine.  Once  or  twice 
when  ]\[acaulay  was  present  this  produced  a  curious  contrast.  He 
■^Macauhiy,  I  mean  —  talked  French,  indeed,  and  not  bad  as  to 
idiom,  but  it  was  most  amusingly  hard  and  unwieldy,  and  poured 
forth,  if  not  as  triumphantly  as  he  pours  forth  his  English,  yet  with 
the  same  tone  and  accent 

July  14.  —  Your  letter  of  June  27,  addressed  to  Anna,  came  this 
morning.  Thank  you  for  it  as  much  as  if  it  were  addressed  to  me, 
for  I  have  had  the  full  benefit  of  it.  So  have  sundry  of  your  friends, 
—  as  far  as  good  news  about  you  are  concerned,  —  for  I  read  it  on  my 
way  down  to  ]\lilman's,  where  I  met  the  Heads,  the  Lyells,  Macaulay, 
and  Elwin,  the  editor  of  the  "  Quarterly,"  all  of  whom  were  glad  to 
hear  about  you.  We  had  a  most  agreeable  breakfast ;  Macaulay 
doing,  of  course,  pretty  much  all  the  talk,  but  doing  it  in  a  gayer, 
and  even  a  more  droll  spirit,  than  I  have  known  him  to  do  it  before. 
"We  laughed  immoderately  sometimes. 

Yesterday  evening  I  met  a  lot  more  of  your  friends  at  Lord 
Wensleydale's,  —  the  Argylls,  Milnes,  etc.  They  all  want  to  know 
about  "  Philip  IL,"  but  I  can  tell  them  very  little.  You  must  come 
and  explain  the  matter  yourself.  If  you  will,  you  will  find  as  glad  a 
Avelcome  as  anybody  can  have,  from  as  good  people  as  are  to  be  found 
anywhere.  To-day,  at  dinner,  I  am  to  meet  Grote.  I  forget  whether 
you  knew  him.  I  mean  to  find  out  what  he  thinks  about  Philip,  for 
though  I  do  not  doubt  what  his  opinion  on  the  whole  will  be,  I  am 
curious  to  know  how  he  will  give  it,  and  it  is  well  worth  having  in 
detail. 

The  condensation  of  social  activity  seems  to  be  more  absolute 
than  ever  this  season.  Besides  invitations  to  breakfast,  lunch,  dinner, 
and  all  the  forms  of  evening  parties,  ....  they  have  now  a  sort 
of  tea  and  talk  meetings,  with  fruit  and  ices,  from  four  to  seven, 
which  they  call  matinees,  ....  and  which  I  am  told  are  very 
agreeable,  especially  when  they  are  given  with  music,  in  gardens, 
....  I  have  been  asked  to  several,  but  have  not  yet  been  able  to  go. 
Lady  Holland,  however,  is  to  give  three  in  the  next  three  weeks, 
which  I  hear  are  likely  to  be  the  best  of  the  season,  and  which,  no 
doubt,  will  be  fine,  under  those  grand  old  trees  in  the  park  round 
Holland  House  ;  where,  though  I  miss  some  things  that  I  wish  had 
been  preserved  as  records  of  the  past,  I  find  everywhere  great  im- 
provements, and  in  excellent  taste.     To  one  of  these  matinees  I  mean 


to  go. 


Your  laurels  are  very  green,  and  grow  fast ;  perhaps  faster  on  the 


368  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

Continent  than  they  do  here.  Mignet  spoke  to  me  of  you  nearly 
every  time  I  saw  him,  and  he  knows  the  value  of  your  labors,  for  he 
has  himself  been  employed  several  years  on  a  history  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  which  he  evidently  intends  should  be  his  opus  mag- 
num. And  a  great  work  it  will  be  if  he  finishes  it  in  a  manner 
becoming  so  great  a  subject ;  but  he  gives  no  sign  as  to  the  time 
when  it  will  be  ready  for  the  press,  and  his  health  is  not  strong, 
especially  since  the  death  of  his  mother  last  winter,  which  I  hear 
had  a  very  painful  effect  upon  him.     But  I  am  at  the  end  of  my 

paper Yours  always, 

G.  T. 

To  Mrs.  Ticknor. 

London,  July  13, 1857. 

I  worked  at  the  British  Museum  till  four  o'clock,  and  had  some 
talk  there  with  Stirling,  who  comes  there  almost  every  day  to  work 
for  his  history  of  Don  John  of  Austria.  But  the  chief  event  of  the 
morning  for  me  was  a  long  visit  I  made,  by  his  invitation,  to  old 
Lord  Aberdeen ;  and  a  very  interesting  talk  I  had  with  him  about 
the  politics  of  Europe  and,  to  some  extent,  of  the  United  States.  I 
have  talked  with  no  man  in  England  who  seems  to  be,  on  such  great 
matters,  so  able  and  ^^^se  as  he  is,  or  so  calm  and  moderate 

In  the  afternoon  Henry  Taylor  came  and  made  me  a  long  visit. 
He  is  only  in  town  for  the  day,  passing  from  "Worcestershire  to  St. 
Leonard's,  where  he  is  to  spend  the  next  two  months.  He  is  grown 
quite  gra}^  but  otherwise  is  little  changed.  He  was  surprised  to  find 
Ellen  a  kinswoman  of  ours  ;  and  when  I  told  him  she  was  a  niece  of 
whom  I  have  always  been  very  fond,  he  answered  instantly,  "  How 
could  you  help  it '(  everybody  is  fond  of  her."  This,  indeed,  is  cer- 
tainly the  feeling  of  a  very  large,  high,  and  intellectual  society,  which 
claims  her  as  one  of  its  ornaments.  Godley,  who  knows  a  great  many 
people  of  the  best  sort  in  the  upper  classes,  told  me  the  other  day 
that  he  had  never  heard  a  word  of  anything  but  praise  and  love  of 
her,  since  she  had  been  here.  One  person,  however,  he  added,  ob- 
jected to  her,  that  she  was  "  an  admitted  paragon,  and  that  paragons 
were  not  to  his  taste." 

At  half  past  ten  in  the  evening  —  nobody  goes  to  a  party  earlier  — 
we  went  to  Lady  Wensleydale's,  she  and  Lord  Wensleydale  being 
among  Ellen's  great  admirers.  A  good  many  people  were  there,  but 
not  a  crowd.  I  talked  chiefly  with  Milnes,  Lord  Belhaven,  —  a  Scotch 
Lord,  —  and  the  Lord  Chancellor  and  his  wife.  Lady  Cranworth  ;  the 


M.  65.]  DEANERY  OF  ST.  PAUL'S.  309 

latter  curious  about  the  rich,  large  houses  in  New  York.  There 
were  more  people  there  that  I  knew  than  I  expected  to  find  in  any 
London  party  of  the  sort. 

Tuesday,  July  14,  —  Lizzie's  letter  of  the  28th  -  30th  was  my  morn- 
ing benediction.     Thank  you  for  it,  darling  child If  I  could 

now  only  get  news  of  your  safe  and  comfortable  arrival  at  home,  dear- 
est wife,  it  seems  as  if  I  should  be  patient.  But  I  do  not  suppose  I 
shall  be  till  I  see  you  all. 

As  soon  as  I  had  read  your  letter,  dearest  Lizzie,  I  took  the  rest, 
....  and  set  off  on  my  travels  into  the  city  to  breakfast  with  the 
Milmans.  The  rooms  were  not  quite  so  dark  as  they  were  when  we 
breakfasted  there  a  year  ago,  for  the  weather  is  very  bright  and 
warm.  But  even  if  it  had  been  dull  and  smoky  outside,  the  company 
at  table  would  have  made  everything  cheerful,  namely,  the  Lyells, 
the  Heads,  Elwin  (editor  of  the  "  Quarterly  "),  and  Macaulay,  so  that, 
with  the  family,  we  had  just  ten,  which  seems  to  be  the  general  num- 
ber. Macaulay,  of  course,  did  the  talking,  and  certainly  he  did  it 
well.  He  was  more  positively  amusing  than  I  have  ever  heard  him, 
more  nearly  droll 

By  the  time  I  reached  home  —  four  miles,  I  think  —  ....  it  was 
two  o'clock,  and  very  hot  and  close.  Reeve,  the  editor  of  the  "  Edin- 
burgh Review,"  came  in  soon  afterwards,  and  I  talked  with  him  for 

nearly  an  hour We  all  dined  together,  with  Mrs.  Stanley,  a 

very  agreeable,  sensible  old  lady,  mother  of  the  Stanley  who  wrote 
Arnold's  Life We  had  Mad.  Mohl,  Senior,  and  Grote,  the  his- 
torian, so  that  there  were  abundant  materials  for  good  talk,  and  we 
had  it  ;  Grote  doing  his  part  rather  solemnly,  but  very  well.  In  the 
evening  Tocqueville  came  in,  passing  through  London  towards  home, 
and  so  I  took  leave  of  him  ....  for  the  third  time,  and  always 
sorry  to  do  it 

July  15.  —  I  worked  a  good  while  at  Stirling's  this  morning;  but 
as  he  gives  me  leave,  very  liberally,  to  bring  home  with  me  such 
books  as  I  want  to  examine,  I  did  not  stop  so  long  as  I  otherwise 
should  have  done,  but  came  home  to  rest  a  little.  It  was  lucky  I 
did,  for  I  was  but  just  stretched  on  the  sofa  when  I  was  called  to  the 
Due  de  Broglie  and  Albert.     They  have  been,  as  you  know,  to  visit  the 

family  of  Louis  Philippe The  Due  is  one  of  their  counsellors, 

or,  as  the  Due  d'Aumale  called  him,  this  afternoon  at  Lady  Holland's, 
the  patriarch  in  their  politics.  They  are  only  in  town  for  a  part  of 
the  day,  so  that  I  was  really  touched  with  their  kindness  in  coming 
to  see  me  at  all.     But  on  Friday  they  will  be  here  again  for  a  few 

16*  X 


370  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S57. 

hours,  and  I  shall  hope  to  find  them  just  a  moment,  to  thank  them. 
Afterwards  I  went  to  see  the  Lyells,  for  they  go  off  to-morrow,  and  I 
do  not  want  to  take  leave  of  them  in  the  midst  of  a  great  party, 
where  I  am  to  meet  them  to-night.  I  need  not  tell  yon  I  was  sorry 
to  bid  them  good  by.  They  have  been  as  kmd  and  true  as  they  al- 
ways are 

I  then  went  first  to  General  Fox's,"^  where  I  found  the  same  sort  of 
hearty  kindness  I  always  have,  and  where  I  took  one  of  the  party  I  found 

loun'-'ins:  there  and  went  to  a  grand  matinee  at  Holland  House 

Nothing  of  the  sort  could  well  be  finer.  The  wind  had  come  round 
to  the  north,  so  that  it  was  cool  enough  ;  and,  passing  through  the 
house,  ....  the  company  came  out  into  the  park,  where  all  the 
fashionable  society  of  London  seemed  collected  in  picturesque  groups 
imder  the  magnificent  old  oaks,  and  in  the  open  glades  and  fine  gar- 
dens, which  are  scattered  over  that  superb  domain,  —  a  true  country 
scene,  such  as  is  found  in  the  rich,  quiet  parks  of  the  inland  counties, 
brought  to  the  very  borders  of  crowded,  bustling,  noisy  London. 
Tables  were  spread  with  all  kinds  of  refreshments  in  the  open  air, 
and  in  one  of  the  buildings  appropriate  to  such  a  spot  ....  a  Nea- 
politan confectioner,  with  his  attendants,  making  ices  and  screaming 
out  their  qualities  and  excellences  in  rhyme  and  in  his  native  dialect. 
....  Elsewhere  there  was  music,  and  a  little  dancing,  but  not  much, 
though  enough  to  enliven  a  scene  that  was  the  most  riant  that  can  be 

imagined The  c}Tiosure  indubitably  was  Mad.  cle  Castiglione, 

a  Sardinian  lady,  with  all  the  attributes  of  Italian  beauty  added  to  an 
English  complexion  of  purest  red  and  white,  —  generally  seeming  as 
vmmoved  as  if  she  were  of  marble,  but  warming  to  a  very  beautiful 

smile  when  I  told  her  I  had  lately  been  at  Turin She  was 

dressed  with  good  taste,  no  doubt,  but  in  the  extravagance  of  the 
French  fashion,  and  looked  as  if  she  had  just  walked  out  of  Watteau's 

pictures  of  a  garden  scene  in  the  time  of  Louis  XV Everybody 

stared  at  her,  and  yet,  they  say,  she  does  not  think  she  is  admired 
here  so  much  as  at  home,  and  rather  complains  of  it. 

Lady  Theresa  asked  for  my  arm,  and  I  walked  round  with  her  and 
saw  everybody  and  everything  in  the  most  agreeable  manner,  and 
gossiped  and  heard  gossip  of  all  kinds,  such  as  belongs  to  London 
fashionable  society  when  the  season  is  the  fullest,  and  the  movement 
of  everything,  like  the  weird  dance  in  Tarn  O'Shanter,  grows  fast  and 
furious. 

....  At  half  past  eleven  Twisleton,  Ellen,  and  I  reached  Lord 

*  Son  of  the  third  Lord  Holland. 


JE.  65.]  ORLEANS  HOUSE.  371 

■  LansdoAvne's  to  a  great  concert I  could  not  stop  in  the  concert- 
room,  it  was  like  a  steam-bath  ;  but  the  Queen  of  Holland  was  there, 
sundry  other  high-mightinesses,  and  abundance  of  ladies  and  old  gen- 
tlemen, like  Lord  Glenelg,  Lord  Monteagle,  Lord  Lyndhurst,  and  not 
a  few  more,  who  seemed  to  thrive  in  it  like  hot-house  plants.  Many 
others  —  of  whom  I  was  one  —  stayed  in  the  outer  rooms,  where  were 
the  charming  Lady  Shelburne,  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Sir  Henry  Hol- 
land, and  a  plenty  more  people  whom  it  was  agreeable  to  talk  to 

July  17.  — When  I  despatched  my  letters  to  you  this  morning,  giv- 
ing an  account  of  my  travel's  history  down  to  that  moment,  I  was  be- 
ginning a  regular  London  day,  which  I  have  now  just  finished  at  one 
A.  M.,  without  so  much  fatigue  as  to  prevent  me  from  writing  you  at 
least  a  page.  I  always  do  before  I  go  to  bed,  as  I  do  not  think  I  could 
go  quietly  to  sleep  else,  or  have  a  good  night.  I  began  at  the  British 
Museum  three  or  four  hours'  work,  and  very  interesting  work,  too, 
from  which  I  came  home  with  a  good  many  notes,  and  very  dirty 
hands,  from  turning  over  curious  old  Spanish  books.  When  I  had 
washed  and  put  myself  in  order  I  went  to  Lady  Chatterton's,  a  lady 
who  has  written  a  book  about  the  South  of  France,  and  collects  a  cer- 
tain portion  of  fashionable  and  literary  society  at  her  house  to  hear 
music  and  eat  ices,  drink  tea,  and  talk,  from  four  to  six  or  seven. 
....  Harness  was  there,  Harriet  Hosmer,  Sir  Gardiner  Wilkinson, 
"  Faust "  Hay  ward,  Barlow^,  Lady  Becher,  etc.  But  I  went  late  and 
came  away  early 

Mv  dinner  was  at  Lord  Wenslevdale's,  where  we  had  Murchison, 
Lord  Caernarvon,  the  Bishop  of  London,  —  very  agreeable,  —  the 
Laboucheres,  Edward  Ellice,  Lord  Brougham,  Lady  Ebrington,  etc. 
I  talked  before  dinner  with  Lord  Brougham,  who  seems  to  grow  old 
as  fast  as  anybody  I  meet,  and  who  is  said  to  have  shown  symptoms 
of  age  in  a  speech  to-day 

It  was  so  pleasant  that  I  forgot  myself  and  stayed  too  late,  so  that 
I  did  not  arrive  at  Senior's,  to  a  musical  party,  till  considerably  after 
eleven  o'clock.  There  I  talked  a  long  time  with  Lord  Hatherton, 
who  has  just  had  a  day  or  two  from  Tocqueville,  and  who  —  as  well 
as  Lady  Hatherton  —  seemed  to  share  the  general  admiration  he  has 
inspired  during  his  visit  here 

July  18. —  Milnes  called  for  me  in  his  open  carriage  at  ten,  and 
we  drove  through  the  beautiful  country  —  which  is  found  on  almost 
all  sides  of  London  —  to  Twickenham,  for  a  breakfost  at  the  Due 
d'Auniale's.  His  place  is  called  Orleans  House,  and  is  one  of  those 
rich  old  places  that  abound  in  England.     It  was  once  occupied  by  his 


372  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

father,  Louis  Philippe,  and  the  Due  —  who,  you  know,  has  the  im- 
mense Conde  fortune  —  has  filled  it  up  with  rare  and  curious  hooks, 
inherited  pictures,  manuscripts,  etc.,  etc.,  all  arranged  with  admirahle 
taste,  so  that  it  is  like  a  beautiful  museum.  This  is  inside  ;  outside, 
an  English  lawn  of  many  acres,  with  flower-beds  and  groups  of  trees 
scattered  all  over  it,  slopes  do\\Ti  to  the  Thames,  and  leaves  nothing 
to  desire  ;  while  belts  of  wood,  that  look  like  a  forest,  exclude  what- 
ever would  be  disagreeable  in  the  neighborhood. 

We  had  for  company  Sir  John  Simeon,  Van  De  "Weyer,  Milman, 
Hawtrey,  Lord  Duff"erin,  etc.,  etc.     The  breakfast  —  at  twelve  and  a 

half —  was,  in  fact,  a  dinner  of  great  luxury  and  many  courses 

But  it  did  not  occupy  much  above  an  hour,  and  then  we  went  out 
upon  the  la^\Ti,  walked  about,  talked  gayly,  smoked,  went  into  the 
orangery,  greenhouses,  and  one  or  two  other  buildings,  which  are 
made  repositories  for  works  of  art  and  curiosities. 

The  Due  is  very  agreeable,  and  in  rare  books  one  of  the  most  know- 
ing men  in  England,  collecting  them  with  care  and  at  great  cost,  and 
cataloguing  them  with  curious  notes  himself  .... 

By  four  o'clock  we  were  in  town  again,  and  I  went  to  a  matinee  at 
Lady  Theresa  Le'wis's.  It  was  music.  The  large  saloon  was  full, 
....  the  Milmans,  Lady  Head,  Lord  and  Lady  Morley,  Mrs.  Ed- 
ward Villiers  and  her  three  pretty  daughters,  Hayward,  etc 

I  was  now  —  as  you  may  suppose  —  well  tired,  and  took  a  good 

rest At  half  past  eight  or  nine  o'clock  —  for  it  comes  to  that 

nowadays  —  I  dined  with  Mr.  Bates,  and  met  Sparks  and  his  wife, 
Gary,  —  a  sensible  M.  P.,  —  Sir  Gore  Ouseley  and  Lady  Ouseley,  and 

a  Count  and  Countess  Somebody  from  Brussels 

I  finished  the  evening  at  Lady  Palmerston's  ;  that  is,  I  was  there 
from  eleven  to  one,  and  saw  great  numbers  of  distinguished  people,  — 
Lord  Aberdeen,  Mad.  de  Castiglione,  —  with  her  hair  creped,  and  built 
up  as  high  as  it  used  to  be  in  the  time  of  Louis  XV.,  and  powdered 
and  full  of  ribbons,  —  the  Argylls,  the  Laboucheres,  Lord  Clarendon, 
and  most  of  the  ministers,  ....  and  ever  so  many  more.  Mr.  Dallas 
was  there,  and  introduced  me  diligently  to  foreign  ambassadors,  both 
Christian  and  heathen,  and  to  General  "Williams,  the  hero  of  Kars, 
for  which  last  I  was  much  obliged  to  him,  as  the  General  is  a  most 

agreeable   person.     Lord  Palmerston  was  uncommonly  civil 

But  I  was  glad  when  it  was  over,  I  was  so  tired,  though  Milnes  and 

Lord  Wensleydale  thought  it  was  very  American  to  go  home  so  early. 

I  was,  however,  richly  paid  for  it,  ...  .  for  on  the  table  in  the 

entry  lay,  most  unexpectedly,  dear  Lizzie's  charming  letter  of  July  6 


M.  65.]  LORD  GRANVILLE.  373 

and  7,  wliich  I  read  through  twice  without  stopping,  and  then  carried 

to  bed  with  me 

July  19.  —  Twisleton  and  I  breakfasted  with  Milnes,  and  we  had 
Mad.  Mohl,  Sir  John  Simeon,  —  a  book-collector  whom  I  met  at 
the  Due  d'Aumale's  and  find  very  pleasant,  —  General  Kmety,  —  a 
Hunc:arian,  who  flourished  much  in  the  last  war  at  home  and  now 
flourishes  much  in  society  here,  —  young  Harcourt,  Lord  Stanley, 
and  enough  more  to  make  up  a  dozen.  The  talk  was  much  about  the 
defection  of  the  Sepoys  in  Bombay,  which  begins  to  trouble  them 
very  much.  I  noticed  last  night  that  Lord  Clarendon,  Lord  Palmer- 
ston,  and  two  or  three  of  their  set,  seemed  so  anxious  to  put  a  good 
face  on  the  matter  and  keep  up  a  cheerful  courage,  that  I  could  not 
help  feeling  that  they  must  have  serious  misgivings.  Indeed,  it  can- 
not be  otherwise  ;  and  the  impression  seems  to  be  that  there  will  be 
angry  discussions  in  Parliament.  But  this  last  I  take  to  be  uncertain. 
British  pluck  will,  I  think,  stand  the  ministers  in  good  stead  on  this 
occasion,  as  it  did  in  the  war  with  Russia. 

I  came  home  before  two,  and  wrote  to  you  and  Circourt  till  four, 
when  I  made  a  very  agreeable  visit  at  Holland  House,  where  I  went 
into  the  old  library  and  turned  over  a  good  many  curious  books,  the 
very  positions  of  which  I  remembered,  so  that  when  Lord  Holland 
mustered  up  a  knowing  person  and  sent  him  to  me,  —  for  I  went  to 
the  library  alone,  —  I  found  him  useless.  Lord  and  Lady  Holland 
were  receiving  a  good  many  friends,  and  I  lounged  with  them  some 
time,  after  which  I  made  a  visit  to  Macaulay,  who  lives  near,  and 
with  whom  I  had  a  long  and  interesting  talk  about  Burke,  as  we 
sat  on  his  beautiful  lawn,  where  I  found  him  reading.  He  said 
that  Burke  would  have  made  a  good  historian,  judging  from  his  East 
India  speeches  and  papers,  which  w^ere  drawn  up  with  great  labor, 
and  perfectly  accurate  in  their  facts.  I  doubted,  and  doubt  still. 
Burke  was  really  made  for  a  statesman  and  orator,  and  for  nothing 
else. 

In  the  evening  I  went  to  Lord  Granville's,  ha\ang  been  obliged  to 
refuse  an  invitation  to  dine  there  two  days  ago.  Sir  John  Acton, 
who  has  been  to  see  me  twice,  but  whom  I  have  not  before  met,  was 
there,  having  arrived  four  days  ago  from  the  Continent.^  Both  he 
and  his  mother,  Lady  Granville,  received  me  vnth.  the  greatest  kind- 
ness. Lord  Granville  came  in  soon  afterwards,  wearing  the  Star  and 
Garter,  because  he  had  been  dining  with  the  Queen  of  Holland.  He 
was  followed  by  Count  Bernstorff"  and  his  wife,  the  Prussian  Ambas- 

*  Sir  John,  now  Lord  Acton,  had  been  in  Boston  in  1S52. 


374  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

Bador  and  Ambassadress,  Lord  and  Lady  Clanricarde,  —  the  daughter 
of  Canning,  —  and  a  good  many  more 

Lady  Clanricarde  —  of  whom,  when  Lord  Granville  presented  me 
to  her,  he  said  she  was  among  the  most  brilliant  persons  in  English 
society  —  I  found  a  very  pleasant  talker,  but  not  quite,  I  thought, 
up  to  the  character  he  gave  her.  I  took  the  most  pleasure  in  Sir 
John  Acton  and  his  mother.  Sir  John  seemed  to  begin  just  where 
he  left  off  in  Boston,  and  to  have  the  liveliest  recollection  of  every- 
thing there.  He  sent  many  messages  to  you  and  Anna  and  Lizzie, 
full  of  regret  that  he  should  not  see  any  of  you,  and  told  his  mother 
how  much  kindness  he  had  received  from  you.  She  is  a  person  of 
excellent  manners,  elegant  but  not  elaborate,  talks  a  great  deal,  with 
a  slightly  foreign  accent,  and  is  vigilantly  attentive  to  everybody. 
....  She  invited  me  to  come  as  often  as  I  can,  saying  she  is  always 
at  home 

I  shall  go  if  I  can,  but  I  have  no  time  at  my  disposition.  At  least, 
it  seems  so  to  me ;  for  I  cannot  do  as  the  English  do,  go  to  two  or 
three  places  after  a  dinner  that  does  not  end  till  half  past  ten,  be- 
cause, being  a  stranger,  I  must  talk  some  time  with  each  person  to 
whom  I  am  introduced,  or  else  seem  uncivil.  Besides,  I  want  to  talk 
to  them  generally. 

July  20.  —  I  worked  at  home  till  twelve  o'clock,  and  then  went 
about  Library  affairs,  to  the  booksellers',  and  then  to  the  British 
Museum.  But  on  my  way  I  stopped  at  the  famous  Bow  Street  office, 
where  the  police  of  all  London  is  chiefly  managed,  and  where  one  of 
the  principal  officers  is  Jardine,  an  old  fellow-student  at  Gottingen 
forty  years  ago.  He  had  complained  heretofore  that  I  had  not  been 
to  see  him  Avhen  I  had  been  in  London,  and  two  days  ago  I  left  my 
card,  which  he  returned  yesterday  with  a  note,  begging  me  to  come 
and  see  him  this  morning  at  the  Bow  Street  office,  as  he  leaves  Lon- 
don to-morrow  for  six  weeks.  I  was  glad  I  went,  though  I  stopped 
only  a  few  minutes  ;  for  he  is  a  good,  warm-hearted  man,  and  was  evi- 
dently pleased  that  I  had  remembered  him. 

From  three  to  six  I  spent  in  the  library  of  a  Mr.  Turner,  who  has  a 
very  beautiful  collection  of  rare  old  Spanish  books,  which  he  did  not 

at  all  weary  of  showing  me I  dined  with  John  Chorley,  the 

Spanish  scholar,  meeting  only  his  brother,  — who  writes  about  music, 
—  and  Arthur  Helps,  and  we  talked  on  till  after  midnight  with  as 
much  interest  and  in  as  high  a  tone  as  any  conversation  I  have  had 
in  Europe.  The  subjects  were  of  the  noblest,  the  differences  of  opin- 
ion enough  to  give  zest  to  the  discussion,  and  the  men  —  especially 


M.  65.]  JOHN  CHORLEY.  375 

John  Chorley  —  first-rate  in  knowledge,  and  the  power  to  illustrate 

and  fortify  their  positions 

Jul])  21.  — .  .  .  .  I  worked  some  time  in  the   British   Museum, 
where  the  way  seems  lengthening  as  I  go,  under  the  leading  of  Panizzi 

and  that  living  index,  AYatts But  I  am  determined  not  to 

wear  myself  out  there  much  more I  dined  at  Senior's 

Several  interesting  people  were  at  table  :  the  Bishop  of  Hereford, 
better  known  as  Dr.  Hampden ;  Doyle,  the  editor  of  Punch ;  Colo- 
nel Rawlinson. 


376  .  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

Visits  in  the  Country.  —  Isle  of  Wight.  —  Shgreham.  —  Clievening.  — 
Stoke  Park  —  Walton-on-Thames.  —  Bolton  Percij.  —  Wentworth 
House.  —  Wallington.  —  Aldersham  Park.  —  Malvern.  —  Ellerheck. 
—  Manchester  Exhibition.  —  Liverpool.  —  Departure  for  America.  — 
Letters  to  Mrs.  Ticknor. 

To  Mrs.  Ticknor. 

St.  Clare,  Isle  of  Wight,  July  22,  1857. 

I  am  in  the  country  till  Friday  evening,  refusing  four  or  five  invi- 
tations, two  of  which  I  would  gladly  have  accepted,  one  to  Sir  Some- 
body Eardley's,  to  see  the  beginning  of  the  shipment  of  the  electric 
cable  between  England  and  America,  and  eat  the  needful  dinner  on 
the  occasion  ;  and  the  other  a  matinee  from  four  to  eight,  at  the 
beautiful  establishment  of  the  Duchesse  dAumale  at  Twickenham, 
where  I  should  have  met  the  Comte  de  Paris  and  most  of  the  Orleans 

family I  left  Ellen  and  Twisleton  with  a  pretty  sad  feeling,  as 

well  as  with  a  wearied  body  and  jaded  spirits,  and  came  down  to 
Colonel  Harcourt  and  Lady  Catherine,  in  the  Isle  of  Wight.  You 
and  Anna  were  invited,  and  much  regret  expressed,  both  in  writing 
and  by  word  of  mouth,  that  you  could  not  be  here,  a  regret  that  I 
share  with  very  great  aggravations.  It  is  a  beautiful  place  a  couple 
of  miles  from  Pyde.  It  is  a  stone  house,  very  picturesque,  but  not 
over  large,  with  fine  grounds  full  of  old  trees  and  gardens,  pleasant 
walks,  and  glades  sloping  down  to  the  sea  and  looking  over  to  the 
English  coast Nobody  is  here  but  General  Breton,  who  com- 
mands at  Portsmouth,  and  a  nice  pretty  daughter,  on  account  of  whose 
delicate  health  he  has  just  accepted  the  command  at  Mauritius. 
Everything  is  most  agreeable, — the  tonic  sea-air;  the  charming  walks 
through  woods  and  by  the  sounding  shore  ;  above  all,  the  delicious 
quiet  and  repose. 

The  Colonel  is  as  handsome  and  as  gentlemanlike  as  ever,  and  a 
most  attentive  host.     Lady  Catherine  is  gentle,  intelligent,  cultivated, 


M.  65.]  ISLE  OF  WIGHT.  377 

and  very  accomplished,  of  which  not  only  her  piano  gives  proof,  as 
yon  know,  but,  as  I  find,  the  walls  of  her  house,  where  are  many  really 
beautiful  paintings  both  in  oils  and  water-colors 

July  23.  —  The  principal  place  of  the  Harcourts  is  in  Surrey,  where 
they  stay  about  four  or  five  months  of  each  year,  here  only  six  weeks. 
....  They  call  this  their  small  place  ;  but  there  is  nothing  half  so 
luxurious,  or  in  half  such  good  taste,  in  the  United  States,  nor,  I  think, 
any  country-house  so  large,  certainly  none  to  be  compared  to  it  in  any 
other  respect. 

Julij  24.  —  The  two  days  here,  dearest  wife,  have  been  most  refresh- 
ing, and  I  do  not  feel  at  all  gratified  at  the  idea  of  going  back  to 
noisy,  exciting  London.  The  Harcourts  are  so  kind,  too,  and  want 
me  not  only  to  stay  longer,  but  to  come  to  them  in  Surrey,  neither  of 
which  can  be  done.  I  must  be  in  London  this  evening,  and  in  Eton 
to-morrow,  or  be  accounted  uncivil,  and,  what  is  worse,  not  regardful 
of  Ellen's  unwearied  kindness  to  me,  and  her  husband's  thoughtful, 
careful  hospitality.     So  I  go  at  noon. 

We  had  a  very  pleasant  drive  yesterday  over  to  Yentnor  and  Bon- 
church  and  the  southern  part  of  the  island,  not  forgetting  the  harmo- 
nious Shanklin  Chine,  all  of  which  I  am  sure  you  will  remember,  for 
I  found  I  had  not  forgotten  it.  The  only  place  we  really  stopped  at 
was  Steep  Hill  Castle,  which  the  Harcourts  tell  me  is  the  best  estab- 
lishment in  the  island.  It  is  a  fine  modern  castle,  built  on  a  hillside, 
which  is  full  of  varieties  of  surface  and  charming  glens,  and  commands 
grand  views  of  the  sea  at  every  opening.  The  possessor,  Mr.  Ham- 
borough,  is  a  middle-aged  man  with  a  family  of  beautiful  English  chil- 
dren, and  much  devoted  to  botany  and  wood-craft.  His  place  bears 
proofs  abundant  of  his  good  taste,  as  w^ell  as  of  his  great  resources. 

Just  after  we  arrived  all  the  school-children  of  the  neighborhood  — 
about  one  hundred  and  eighty  —  came  in  with  their  teachers  and  cler- 
gymen, and  after  having  had  tea  and  cake  on  the  grass,  were  brought 
up,  two  at  a  time,  to  Mrs,  Hamborough,  and  according  to  their  conduct 
during  the  year  received  reprimands,  —  very  gentle,  —  or  rewards  very 
appropriate  and  attractive  to  their  young  eyes.  They  then  distrib- 
uted themselves  about  the  la\\Ti  and  frolicked  and  danced We 

were  so  much  amused  that  we  stayed  too  late,  and  did  not  reach, 
home  so  as  to  get  dinner  till  near  nine  o'clock,  though  some  of  the 
neighbors  were  invited,  and  of  course  had  to  wait. 

I  went  all  over  the  house,  offices,  stables,  and  gardens  this  morning. 
....  It  is,  as  you  may  suppose,  all  very  complete.  Lady  Catherine's 
sitting-room  is  singularly  tasteful,  and  has  a  dozen  panels  after  the 


378  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

fashion  of  Louis  XV.  painted  by  her  husband  in  oils,  and  on  her 
mantel-piece  two  little  childish  drawings  by  the  Queen  when  they 
were  taught  together.  After  this  series  of  expeditions  we  went  down 
to  the  seaside  and  sat  under  the  line  old  oaks  on  the  lawn  until  twelve 
o'clock,  when,  with  not  a  little  reluctance,  I  bade  them  good  by, 
charged  with  messages  of  remembrance  and  kindness  from  each  of 
them  for  you 

My  return  to  London  was  through  a  rich  and  beautiful  country, 
but  at  the  end  rose  the  huge,  black,  shapeless  city Ellen  re- 
ceived me  most  affectionately,  ....  and  Twisleton  with  his  usual 
heartiness  broke  out,  "You  must  go  and  hear  the  great  debate  to- 
night, in  the  Commons."  It  was  on  the  Divorce  Bill,  and  had  been 
put  off  from  Monday  last,  when  he  knew  I  had  made  arrangements 
to  go,  and  been  disappointed.  So,  after  some  hesitation  on  my  part, 
and  a  little  urging  on  his,  I  determined  to  go.  The  Twisletons  were 
to  dine  with  Lord  Say  and  Sele,"^  but  I  had  declined  the  invitation  ; 
so  I  hurried  to  the  Athenaeum  for  a  bachelor's  dinner,  and  there  found 
Kingiake  and  Rawlinson,  to  whom  were  soon  added  Hayward  and 
Stirling.  We  pushed  our  tables  together  and  had  a  jolly  dinner,  at 
which  I  left  them  and  went  to  the  House  of  Commons.  I  gave  my 
card  to  the  doorkeeper,  and  desired  him  to  send  it  in  to  the  Speaker, 
—  our  old  friend  Denison,  —  who  had  told  me  I  should  have  the  seat 
of  "a  distinguished  foreigner"  last  Monday  night ;  and  I  was  not  a 
little  surprised  and  pleased  to  find  he  had  just  sent  out  an  order  to 
the  same  effect  for  to-night.     So  that  I  walked  right  in. 

The  debate  had  been  opened,  and  Gladstone  soon  rose,  the  person  I 
had  mainly  come  to  hear.  He  spoke  about  three  quarters  of  an  hour, 
and  was  much  cheered.  His  manner  is  perfectly  natural,  almost  con- 
versational, and  he  never  hesitates  for  the  right  word,  or  fails  to  have 
the  most  lucid  and  becoming  arrangement  of  his  argument.  If  any- 
thing, he  lacked  force.  But  his  manner  was  so  gentlemanlike,  and 
so  thoroughly  appropriate  to  a  great  deliberative  body,  that  I  could 
not  help  sighing  to  think  we  have  so  little  like  it  in  our  legislatures. 
When  he  had  finished,  Stirling,  who  had  been  sitting  with  me  some 
time,  took  me  out,  to  avoid  the  tediousness  of  the  next  speaker,  and 
carried  me  to  see  the  magnificent  library-rooms,  and  the  fine  terrace 
over  the  Thames,  some  hundred  feet  long,  where  I  found  plenty  of 
lazy  members,  lounging  and  smoking.  After  my  return  I  heard  Na- 
pier, of  Dublin,  the  Attorney-General,  Stanley,  and  Lord  Palmerston  ; 
aU  worth  hearing,  and  two  or  three  others  who  were  not.     Before  the 

*  Brother  of  ]\Ir.  TAvisleton. 


M  65.]  ETON.  379 

end  of  the  debate,  however,  —  though  not  much  before,  —  I  came 
home,  well  tired,  as  you  may  suppose,  and  found  Ellen  waiting  for 
me,  no  less  tired.  But  the  least  agreeable  part  of  it  was,  that  I  was 
to  go  to  Eton  early  in  the  morning,  and  she  was  to  go  to  Malvern. 
....  I  was  to  bid  her  and  her  excellent  husband  good  by  for  the 
present,  intending  to  see  them  in  their  retreat  when  I  am  on  my  way 
to  embark.  Even  with  this  prospect,  however,  I  was  very  sincerely 
sorry  to  part  from  them. 

July  25.  —  I  was  off  this  morning  at  a  quarter  before  eight,  —  and 
that  was  before  anybody  was  up,  —  to  Eton,  for  a  ceremony  like  the 
one  I  witnessed  at  Harrow  the  day  after  I  arrived.  Dr.  Hawtrey  in- 
vited me  last  year,  but  I  could  not  go,  and  so  felt  bound  to  go  to-day. 
It  is  a  fine  old  place,  as  you  know,  and  his  rooms  at  the  Lodge,  be- 
sides being  covered  with  good  pictures  and  portraits,  and  crowded 
with  rare  books,  are  tapestried  with  agreeable  and  classical  recollec- 
tions. The  breakfast  in  one  of  them  was  large,  with  sundry  "  My 
Lords  and  Ladies  "  at  table,  of  small  note,  I  suppose,  and  a  few  pleas- 
ant people,  like  Dr.  Hawtrey's  niece,  the  Bishop  of  Salisbury,  —  Ham- 
ilton, —  the  Provost  of  King's  College,  Dr.  Oakes,  etc.  The  speaking 
of  the  voung  men  —  like  that  at  Harrow  —  was  not  so  good  as  it  is 
with  us,  generally,  but  the  German  and  French,  which  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find  intruding  on  such  classic  ground,  were  excellent.  One 
of  the  young  dogs,  who  took  the  part  of  Scapin  in  Moliere's  dia- 
logue, "  Que  diable  allait  il  faire  dans  cette  galere,"  doing  it  almost 
well  enough  for  the  French  stage.  After  this  was  over  I  went  over 
the  building  and  grounds  with  the  good  Provost,  visited  the  chapel, 
and  saw  what  was  to  be  seen,  and  then  came  home,  too  tired  to  wait 
for  the  dinner  and  regatta,  which  last,  however,  I  should  have  been 
glad  to  witness.  On  reaching  Eutland  Gate  I  fairly  lay  dowTi  and 
slept 

When  I  waked  I  felt  fresh  and  strong,  and  w^ent  to  Lady  Holland's, 
as  the  day  was  very  beautiful,  and  a  party  in  that  fine  old  park  is  so 
striking.  And  I  was  paid  for  my  trouble.  All  the  royalties  that  I 
missed  at  the  Due  d'Aumale's,  last  Wednesday,  were  there,  besides 
everybody  else,  as  it  seemed  to  me,  that  I  know  in  this  wilderness  of  a 
city.  There  was  fine  music,  a  learned  dog  that  played  cards  and  dom- 
inoes for  the  children,  all  sorts  of  refreshments  and  entertainments, 
but  above  everything  else,  the  beautiful  lawns,  all  covered  or  dotted, 
with  gay  groups,  and  wdth  grand  and  venerable  trees,  under  whose 
shade  people  sat  and  talked,  surrounded  with  flowers  that  were  dis- 
tributed over  the  brilliant  greensward  in  fanciful  beds. 


380  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

In  the  evening  I  met  a  great  many  of  the  same  people  at  Lady 
Palmerston's,  but  the  scene  was  as  different  as  possible.  Among 
those  whom  I  talked  with  was  a  Mr.  Lowe,  in  one  of  the  considera- 
ble offices  of  the  government,  who  spent  some  months  last  year  in  the 
United  States.  I  assure  you  he  saw  things  with  an  eye  both  very 
acute  and  very  vigilant 

July  26.  —  I  took  Senior  in  my  little  brougham,  and  drove  to  Rich- 
mond to  make  two  or  three  visits.  First  we  went  to  the  Marquis  of 
Lansdowne's,  who,  I  am  sorry  to  notice,  grows  feeble  fast,  though  he 
preserves  his  good  spirits,  and  has  the  same  gentle  courtesy  he  always 

had The  Flahaults  were  there,  and  seemed  to  take  pleasure 

in  remembering  our  acquaintance  in  1818-19,  at  Edinburgh 

The  charming,  unworldly  Lady  Shelburne,  who  seems  more  agreeable 

than  ever,  is,  you  know,  their  daughter I  found  her  too,  and 

her  father  and  mother,  at  Lord  John  Russell's,  where  I  was  invited  to 
an  afternoon  dejeuner,  and  where  I  met  a  good  deal  of  distingue  com- 
pany ;  Lord  Monteagle,  et  que  sais-je  ?  Lord  John  has  a  beautiful 
place  in  Richmond  Park,  which  the  Queen  has  given  him  for  his  life, 
and  where  he  seems  to  live  very  happily  with  his  children.  He 
showed  me  his  seat,  as  he  calls  it,  under  some  trees,  commanding  a 
beautiful  view  of  the  river  and  all  the  surrounding  country,  where,  in 
the  shade,  he  told  me,  he  had  read  my  book. 

But  I  did  not  stay  long  there,  for  I  was  more  anxious  to  make  an- 
other visit  than  either  of  the  last.  And  who  do  you  think  it  was 
I  wanted  so  much  to  see  ?  No  less  people  than  old  Count  Thun, 
Countess  Josephine,  and  Count  Frederic  and  his  wife,  who  are  stopping 
at  the  Star  and  Garter  for  a  few  days.  They  came  to  England  for  the 
Manchester  Exhibition,  and  for  sea-bathing  for  the  young  Countess. 
....  I  was  lucky  to  hear  of  them  yesterday  at  Lady  Holland's. 
They  were  really  glad  to  see  me,  and  no  mistake.  The  bright  beau- 
tiful young  Countess  broke  out  at  once,  "  And  why  did  you  not  stay 
that  other  day  at  Verona  ?  I  went  to  see  Mrs.  Ticknor ;  but  you 
were  all  flown."  ....  They  Avere  all  looking  well,  and  sent  any 
quantity  of  kind  messages  to  you  and  Anna.  But  it  was  late,  and  I 
was  obliged  to  leave  them,  parting  from  them  as  heartily  as  I  met 
them,  with  a  promise  that  they  will  come  and  see  me  in  London. 

"We  drove  to  tovm  as  fast  as  we  could,  and,  finding  it  impossible  to 
change  my  dress,  I  went  straight  to  Senior's,  ....  it  having  been 
understood  that  I  was  to  dine  with  him,  sans  ceremonie.  We  had, 
however,  something  of  a  party  :  his  brother,  a  military  man  ;  .  .  .  . 
Miss  Hampden,  daughter  of  the   Bishop,  and  very  sensible ;   and 


M.  65.]  SUEZ  CANAL.  381 

Lesseps,  who  is  here  now  about  the  great  project  of  the  Suez  Canal, 
and  making  war  on  all  occasions  —  including  this  one  —  upon  Lord 
Palmerston  in  the  most  furious  manner,  though  making  a  merry 
affair  of  it  all  the  time,  with  true  French  gayety.  II  a  beaucoup 
dJesprit,  and  amused  me  very  much 

I  walked  home,  the  distance  being  very  small,  ....  dressed  and 
went  to  Lady  Granville's,  where,  having  been  informally  invited,  I 
was  much  surprised  to  find  a  small,  but  very  distinguished  party  :  the 
Queen  of  Holland,  the  old  Duchess  of  Cambridge,  Prince  George,  the 
present  Duke,  the  Princess  Mary,  his  sister,  —  ni  maigre,  ni  mince, 
—  the  young  Duke  of  Manchester  and  his  very  pretty  wife,  .... 

and  I  suppose  a  dozen  more Lady  Granville  introduced  me  to 

the  Queen,  the  Duchess  of  Cambridge,  and  the  Duke  of  Manchester. 
....  The  Queen,  with  whom  I  had  only  a  few  words  of  ceremony, 
talks  English  very  well,  and  is  quite  free  and  natural  in  her  manners. 
The  Duchess  of  Cambridge,  who  is  very  stout  and  plain,  seemed  to 
be  full  of  German  bonhomie,  and  I  talked  with  her  a  long  while  about 
Hesse  Cassel,  where  she  was  born,  Hanover,  which  she  knows  well, 
etc.  For  half  an  hour  I  talked  with  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of  Man- 
chester, who  invited  me  to  visit  them  at  Kimbolton.  But  the  most 
agreeable  person  there,  I  suppose,  was  Lady  Clanricarde,  who  amused 
me  very  much 

I  told  Lord  Palmerston  that  I  had  been  dining  where  I  met  Les- 
seps, and  that  he  was  full  of  his  canal.  "  He  may  be  full  of  his 
canal,"  said  the  Premier,  "  but  his  canal  will  never  be  full  of  water, 
as  the  world  will  see."  And  then,  having  laughed  heartily  at  his  own 
poor  joke,  he  went  on,  and  abused  Lesseps  quite  as  much  as,  two  hours 
before,  Lesseps  had  abused  him,  though  in  a  somewhat  graver  tone, 
explaining  all  the  while  his  objections  to  the  grand  project,  which  it 
still  seems  to  me  can  do  England  no  harm,  though  it  may  much  harm 
the  stockholders,  which  is  quite  another  thing. 

July  27.  —  Thank  Heaven,  I  know  you  are  at  home,  "  safely  ar- 
rived, all  well,"  though  that  is  all  I  know.  I  have  only  Lizzie's  dear, 
good  letter  of  July  14,  containing  the  telegraphic  words.  It  is  a 
great  relief  ;  I  cannot  tell  you  how  great,  but  still  I  am  unreasonable 
enough  to  want  more.     And  I  know  there  is  more  somewliere 

When  I  had  breakfasted  ....  I  went  out  for  work,  and  came 
home  for  work,  and  in  the  course  of  three  hours  did  a  great  deal  of 
it.  I  have  not  told  you  how  I  have  been  bothered  about  the  Library 
affairs,  for  I  did  not  want  to  have  you  troubled  as  well  as  myself, 
especially  as  you  could  not  give  me  counsel.     The  difficulty  has  been 


382  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

about  getting  an  agent I  shall  see  Mr.  Bates,  and  I  trust  settle 

everything  by  the  end  of  the  week.  If  I  do,  it  will  be  a  considerable 
weight  off  my  mind 

Lord  Palmerston  and  Lord  Clarendon  both  thought  there  would 

be  a  good  debate  to-night  in  the  Commons So  I  went  to  the 

Athenseum  the  moment  I  could  get  through  my  troublesome  work, 
....  and  having  dined  pleasantly  with  Merivale,  Kingiake,  and  Hay- 
ward,  I  hurried  off  to  the  House.  Lord  Harry  Vane  procured  me  the 
seat  I  had  last  time.  But  I  was  too  late,  or  at  least  too  late  for  what 
I  wanted.  D'Israeli  had  spoken,  but  not  very  well The  sub- 
ject was  India,  but  there  was  no  excitement ;  little  interest,  less  in- 
deed than  I  find  everywhere  else,  for  in  society  people  now  talk 
incessantly  about  the  mutiny,  or  revolt,  which  some  call  a  revolution, 
and  which  may  turn  out  one,  though  I  think  not  in  its  final  results. 

Juhj  29.  — ....  The  morning  is  bright  and  warm,  as  the  weather 

has  been  to  a  remarkable  degree  ever  since  I  came  to  London 

I  write  this  just  as  I  am  setting  off  for  Twickenham,  to  breakfast 
with  the  Due  d'Aumale  again. 

Evening.  —  Breakfast  was  at  twelve,  and  I  was  punctual.  The 
Due  received  me  in  his  library,  and  carried  me  through  a  beautiful 
conservatory  to  the  salon,  where  the  ladies  were  with  the  Prince  and 
Princess  de  Joinville.  We  sat  down,  just  twelve,  at  a  round  table. 
The  dame  dlionneur  said  to  me  in  a  low  tone,  "  Madame  la  Duchesse 
vous  demande  a  sa  fjauche."  The  Prince  de  Joinville  sat  of  course  on 
her  right.  The  whole  breakfast  was  as  agreeable  and  easy  as  pleasant 
talk  could  make  one  anywhere.  Two  of  the  children  were  present, 
the  mother  of  the  Duchesse,  —  the  Princess  of  Salerno,  —  etc.  The 
service  was  not  as  recherche  as  it  was  when  I  was  there  with  literary 
celebrities  and  no  ladies,  but  it  was  much  like  a  dinner,  ....  nice 
as  anything  can  be,  with  a  savoriness  to  which,  somehow  or  other,  no 
English  table  reaches. 

After  breakfast  I  went  to  the  library  again  with  the  Due,  who  took 
down  nearly  two  hundred  curious  books  to  show  me,  concerning  some 
of  which  —  Spanish  —  I  made  notes.  Then  we  came  back  to  the 
ladies,  who  were  now  settled  at  their  needlework  in  the  salon,  which 
opened  on  the  beautiful  lawn,  while  the  Due,  the  Prince,  and  I  sat 
before  the  door,  and  enjoyed  an  uncommonly  nice  cigar  and  much 
agreeable  gossip. 

But  there  is  an  end  to  everything  human,  and  T  brought  this  to  an 
end  a  little  sooner  than  I  otherwise  should  have  done,  but  Hampton 
Court  is  not  far  off,  and  I  wanted  very  much  to  see  it My  only 


M.   65.]  RAFFAELLE'S  CARTOONS.  383 

object  —  so  to  speak  —  was  the  cartoons  ;  I  walked,  therefore,  hardly  ' 

looking  to  the  right  or  left,  through  twenty-four  rooms  lined  with 
pictures  of  all  sorts,  good  and  bad,  many  blank  spaces  indicating  that 
some  of  the  better  had  been  sent  to  Manchester,  jy^d  at  last,  through 
crowds  of  people,  —  amounting,  I  should  think,  y    learly  a  thousand, 

—  reached  the  somewhat  ill-lighted  room,  buiU'  ...pressly  for  the  car- 
toons by  Sir  Christopher  Wren.  They  are  /  inly  very  grand.  I 
remember  the  School  of  Athens  and  the  SiV  .n  the  Sistine  Chapel, 
but,  after  all,  I  think  the  Preaching  of  Paul,  and  Peter  and  John  at 
the  Beautiful  Gate,  stand  before  anything  in  Rome.  Indeed,  as  I 
have  occasionally  —  when  I  was  tired  of  work  at  the  British  .Museum 

—  gone  into  the  scnlpture-gallery,  and  stood  before  the  works  of 
Phidias  there,  I  have  ^  -e  to  the  conclusion  that  these  cartoons  and 
the  bas-reliefs  from  the  Parthenon  are,  of  all  that  I  have  seen^the 
highest  efforts  of  the  highest  art.  But  nothing  ever  seemed  so  lost  on 
those  that  came  to  enjoy  them,  as  did  these  cartoons,  to-day,  on  the 
people  that  lounged  through  the  room,  during  the  hour  and  an  half 
that  I  was  in  it.  Their  number  must  have  been  nearly  two  hundred. 
Not  one  stopped.  Many  turned  away  from  the  cartoons,  and  looked 
out  of  the  windows  to  see  a  poor  fountain  in  the  court-yard  and  the 
gold-fish  in  the  basin.  Yet  they  were  well  dressed  and  looked  intelli- 
gent. Certainly  thej''  had  stopped  to  enjoy  the  good  pictures  of  the 
Italian  and  Dutch  schools,  and  the  Sir  Peter  Lelys,  in  the  multi- 
tudinous rooms  before  they  reached  the  cartoons,  for  I  saw  them 
doing  it. 

On  my  way  home  I  stopped  half  an  hour  at  Holland  House,  where 

Lady  Holland  was  giving  her  third  and  last  fete  chami^etre It 

was  like  the  others,  and,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  the  same  people  every 
time.  Nothing  of  the  kind,  I  hear,  has  been  given  in  England  so 
beautiful 

I  was  very  tired,  and  little  inclined  to  go  out  again;  but  everybody 
at  Lady  Holland's,  to  whom  I  spoke  about  it,  said  I  must  go  to  the 
evening  exhibition  of  the  Academy  of  Arts.  So  I  went,  and  found 
they  were  right.  The  pictures  and  sculpture  —  both  moderate  — 
....  I  had  seen  before.  But  the  illumination  this  evening  made 
everything  brilliant,  and  the  company  ....  comprised,  it  seemed  to 
me,  nearly  everybody  I  know  in  London ;  and,  what  was  more,  every- 
body seemed  animated,  talkative,  and  unconstrained  ;  things  not  uni- 
form or  universal  in  English  society.  The  Hosmer  had  stayed  in 
order  to  be  present  to-night,  and  she  had  the  benefit  of  it.  She  came 
rather  late,  and  I  had  talked  about  her  Cenci  with  Eastlake,  "Waagen, 


384  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

and  other  people,  whose  word  iii  such  a  matter  is  law  here 

She  was  very  neatly  and  simply  dressed  in  piiik,  and  looked  uncom- 
monly j)retty.  I  found  she  knew  a  good  many  people,  —  old  Lady 
Morley,  the  Cardwells,  etc.  But  I  took  her  and  presented  her  to  the 
Heads,  the  Bishop  of  London  and  Mrs.  Tait,  Lord  and  Lady  Palmer- 
ston,  Sir  H.  Holland,  and  sundry  others.  She  pleased.  Her  statue 
was  much  praised.  She  was  very  happy,  and  I  enjoyed  it  a  good 
deal.  When  Lord  and  Lady  Palmerston  were  looking  at  the  Cenci, 
and  expressing  great  admii-ation,  Eastlake  touched  my  arm,  and  whis- 
jDered,  so  that  they  could  hear  it,  "  Everybody  says  the  same  sort  of 
things.  It  is  really  a  beautiful  work  of  art,  and,  for  one  of  her  age, 
quite  wonderful," 

July  30.  —  I  took  Chorley  ^  this  morning  at  ten,  and  —  wdth  Lord 
Holland's  leave — carried  him  to  Holland  House,  where  he  wanted  to 
see  some  of  the  curious  Spanish  books.  Lord  Holland,  in  his  dress- 
ing-gown, was  ready  to  receive  us,  and  laid  out  what  we  wanted  to 
see,  both  printed  and  manuscript,  in  the  kindest  and  most  painstaking 
manner.  We  worked  there  three  hours,  and  I  found  a  good  deal  that 
I  was  glad  to  get,  and  so  did  he 

I  dined  at  the  Athenaeum,  where  I  found  Merivale  and  Whewell, 
and  so  had  a  very  good  time.  Whewell  grows  squarer  and  more 
Bishop-like  than  ever 

July  31.  — A  busy  day,  and  a  long  one.  At  half  past  eight  I  was 
at  Mr.  Bates's,  and  at  half  past  nine  had  settled  everything  with  him. 
....  I  breakfasted  with  the  Heads,  and  had  a  most  agreeable  time. 
There  are  no  pleasanter  people  in  London,  and  I  stayed  late  talking 

in  consequence I  drove  to  the  Thuns'.     Count  Frederic  was 

at  home,  his  sister  soon  followed,  and  then  his  charming,  bright  wife. 
Mrs.  Austin,  too,  came  in,  and  inunediately  announced  to  me  that  she 
had  just  left  a  card  for  me,  having  called  to  invite  me  to  Weybridge, 
an  honor  and  pleasure  I  was  obliged  to  decline.  She  talked  very  well 
about  India,  the  great  subject  noM%  and  I  should  be  glad  to  talk  more 
with  her  about  anything,  for  she  has  great  resources.  An  hour  with 
them  all  passed  very  quickly  and  pleasantly.  When  I  came  away  the 
Countess  Josephine  sent  her  affectionate  regards  to  you  and  Anna, 
and  the  Countess  Frederic  sent  her  love  to  Anna,  and  her  regrets  that 
she  had  not  seen  you.  She  is  really  one  of  the  most  attractive  per- 
sons I  have  ever  met.  Count  Fritz  desired  his  respects  to  you,  and 
seemed  to  have  a  very  lively  recollection  of  his  visit  to  us  in  JMilan. 
I  was  very  sorry  to  part  from  them. 

♦  J.  R.  Chorley. 


M.  m.]  LEAVING  LONDON.  385 


I  dined  tete-d-tete  with  Chorley,  as  I  promised  ....  I  would  the  ' 

first  day  I  could  rescue,  and  I  had  a  very  interesting  talk  with  him  i 

till  nearly  midnight.     He  is  a  shy,  reserved  man,  living  quite  retired  f 

with  an  invalid  sister,  to  whom  he  seems  to  devote  himself  ;  but  he  ' 

is  one  of  the  persons  in  whose  acquaintance  I  have  had  most  pleasure  . 

in  London.     He  is  a  first-rate  Spanish  scholar  ;  evidently  better  than        .  j 

Ford,  or  anybody  else  hereabout.  ! 

Saturday,  August  1.  —  Sixty-six  years  old,  and  not  half  what   I  ^ 

ought  to  be  at  that  age,  in  goodness,  or  anything  else.     I  do  not  like  j 

to  pass  the  day  away  from  all  of  you After  packing,  and  ar- 
ranging for  my  final  departure,  I  went  out  this  morning  to  leave  my 

P.  P.  C's At  two  or  three  doors  I  inquired  and  went  in.     Sir  \ 

Francis  Beaufort's  was  one.     Of  course  I  did  not  see  Lady  Beaufort.*  I 

She  keeps  her  room  entirely  ;  but  she  sent  me  a  kind  message j 

I  saw  also  Lady  Mary  Labouchere,  and  completed  an  arrangement  to  i 

go  to  Stoke  Park  on  Monday.     Her  husband,  you  know,  is  Minister  ■• 

for  the  Colonies,  and  she  said  he  came  home  last  night  at  half  past 
two,  made  nearly  ill  by  reading  the  details  of  the  horrors  in  Lidia, 
that  were  brought  by  the  mail  of  yesterday 

I  dined  at  Sir  George  Lewis's,  —  a  dinner  given  to  the  Heads,  and 
which  the  Heads  did  as  much  as  anybody  to  make  agreeable.  Dr. 
Waagen  was  there,  ....  fourteen  in  all.    I  sat  next  to  Lady  Theresa, 

who  talked  as  brilliantly  as  ever.     She  seems  never  to  tire 

Her  admiration  for  Tocqueville  seems  to  know  no  bounds,  and  when 
she  found  how  much  we  all  liked  him,  she  fairly  shook  hands  with 
me  upon  it,  at  table. 

After  we  went  up  stairs.  Sir  George  came  and  sat  down  —  evidently 

with  a  purpose  —  next  to  me He  wanted  to  talk  about  the 

slavery  question,  and  I  weiit  over  it  with  him  for  nearly  two  hours, 
Sir  Edmund  joining  us  for  the  last  half-hour,  during  which  we  went 
somewhat  upon  India,  and  the  difficulty  there,  as  in  the  United  States, 
of  dealing  with  different  races  of  men.  It  was  strong  talk  that  we 
had,  I  assure  you,  and  nourishing 

Sunday,  August  2.  —  I  breakfasted  with  Senior,  and  afterwards 
went  to  Lord  Minto's  to  see  La  Caieta,  a  distinguished  Neapolitan 
exile,  who  lives  there,  and  whom  I  knew  somewhat  last  year.  He 
told  me  grievous  things  about  his  poor  country  and  the  friends  he  has 
there,  both  in  prison  and  out  of  it,  but  he  has  no  remedies  to  propose. 
....  He  is  too  sensible  to  be  in  favor  of  a  violent  revolution,  and 
yet  it  is  hard  to  wait. 

*  Miss  Honora  Edgeworth.     See^^Vol.  I.  p.  427. 
VOL.    II.  17  T 


-a 


386  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

At  half  past  two  I  drove  down  to  the  Deanery  of  St.  Paul's,  where 
the  Heads  came  soon  afterwards,  and  we  all  went  at  three,  with  the 
Dean  and  Mrs.  Milman,  and  attended  afternoon  service  in  the  choir. 
....  After  we  came  out  of  the  choir,  we  walked  about  the  church  a 
little,  then  went  to  the  Deanery,  then  walked  on  the  adjacent  bridge, 
which  gives  a  fine  view  of  the  river,  — all  alive  with  steamboats,  filled 
for  Sunday  excursions,  —  and  a  still  finer  view  of  St.  Paul's,  which 
certainly  —  even  after  St.  Peter's  seen  —  is  a  grand  and  imposing 
fabric  ;  and  then,  finally,  we  had  a  good  Sunday  family  dinner  of 
roast  beef,  and  a  good  talk,  which  lasted  until  nearly  eleven.     It  was 

all  very  simple,  easy,  and  comfortable But  it  was  very  hot  in 

the  city  ;  indeed,  the  weather  has  excited  much  remark  in  this  par- 
ticular, few  persons  remembering  so  long-continued  a  spell 

The  next  day,  the  3d  of  August,  Mr.  Ticknor  went  to  Stoke 
Park,  the  seat  of  Mr.  Labouchere,  since  Lord  Taunton  :  — 

I  found  the  Park  much  larger  than  I  expected  ;  it  is,  indeed,  one 
of  the  grandest  I  have  seen,  full  of  groves  of  old  oaks,  and  a  plenty  of 
deer,  and  all  so  near  London,  —  only  seventeen  miles.     Windsor  is  in 

full  view  from  it,  and  makes  a  grand  show The  house  is  large, 

but  not  very  good-looking  outside.  Inside,  however,  it  is  fine,  and 
filled  with  fine  works  of  art,  ancient  and  recent  ;  among  the  last,  four 
bas-reliefs  by  Thorwaldsen,  and  one  of  his  statues,  which  gave  me 
great  pleasure.  Lady  Mary  took  me  over  the  whole,  including  her 
own  parlor  and  bedroom,  which  are  very  luxurious  and  tasteful  ;  but 
the  rooms  that  I  preferred  were  the  duiing-room,  and  one  adjacent  to 
it,  in  which  was  a  most  graceful  fountain,  that  in  the  heat  to-day  was 
particularly  attractive.  I  went,  however,  chiefly  to  see  a  few  Spanish 
books,  particularly  a  copy  of  Lope  de  Vega's  plays,  the  most  complete 
and  the  best  preserved  in  the  world.  With  these  I  occupied  myself 
an  hour  or  two,  the  three  charming  little  girls  helping  me  to  brmg 
the  books,  and  put  them  up  again  in  the  most  frolicsome  and  agree- 
able manner. 

Of  course  I  was  taken  to  see  the  old  Manor  House,  the  scene  of 
Gray's  "  Long  Story,"  that  begins,  "  In  Briton's  Isle,  and  Arthur's 
days."  It  is  well  cared  for,  and  is  an  excellent  specimen  of  the  Eliza- 
bethan style,  as  it  ought  to  be,  since  Hatton  lived  there.  The  church, 
too,  and,  above  all,  the  churchyard,  which  gave  the  world  the  undy- 
ing Elegy,  and  where  rest  the  remains  of  Gray^s  mother  and  aunt,  who 
lived  at  Stoke  Pogis  after  the  death  of  his  father.     They  are  most 


jE.  66.]  VISITS  IN  KENT.  387 

poetical  places,  the  architecture,  the  position,  and  the  plantations  be- 
ing just  what  you  would  like  to  have  them,  and  treated  with  the 
respect  they  deserve 

When  we  reached  town, — just  before  seven,  —  I  drove  directly  to 
the  Athenaeum,  where,  by  previous  appointment,  I  met  Twisleton, 
who  has  come  to  town  for  two  nights  to  attend  a  meeting  of  the 

Oxford  Commission We  had  a  jolly  time,  I  assure  you,  and, 

after  going  home,  a  good  talk  till  eleven  o'clock. 

August  4.  — .  .  .  .  I  drove  to  the  Barings',  in  the  depths  of  the  city, 
....  saw  the  gentlemen  there,  —  except  Mr.  Bates,  who  is  at 
Dover,  —  adjusted  my  money  affairs,  and,  hastening  to  the  London 
Bridge  Station,  came  down  to  Mildmay's  at  Shoreham,  in  a  thor- 
oughly hot,  disagreeable,  stifling  carriage  of  the  three-o'clock  train.* 
But  I  was  refreshed  by  the  drive  of  nine  miles  in  a  nice  little  open 
carriage,  which  Mildmay  had  sent  to  fetch  me,  and  I  was  quite  up  to 
my  usual  condition  when  I  reached  the  house,  —  so  cool,  so  quiet,  so 
consoling  after  five  weeks  in  London,  and  the  four  preceding  in  Paris. 

As  I  crossed  the  hall  the  servant  gave  me  a  note  from  Lady  Stan- 
hope about  a  visit  to  Chevening,  and  when  I  entered  the  room  I  found 
Lord  Stanhope  there,  who  had  come  over  to  see  if  I  Avas  arrived, 
bringing  the  Milmans  with  him,  ....  as  they  are  now  stopping  a 
couple  of  nights  at  his  house.     It  was  all  very  agreeable. 

When  they  were  gone,  and  I  had  made  myself  a  little  comfortable, 
we  went  and  sat  on  the  lawn  under  the  fine  old  trees  till  it  was  time 
to  dress  for  dinner.  It  was  delicious.  So  was  the  evening.  I  had 
asked  Mildmay  to  invite  nobody  to  meet  me,  and  so  we  had  a  quiet 
and  most  agreeable  time  in  the  library.  .... 

August  5.  —  We  had  a  little  rain  this  forenoon,  w^hich  was  much 
w^anted  in  the  country,  and  very  welcome  to  me,  as  it  prevented  all 
suggestion  of  moving,  I  remained  in  my  chamber,  chiefly  occupied 
with  writing.  In  the  afternoon  it  was  fine  again,  and  we  drove  to 
Knowle,  a  grand  old  castellated  mansion,  belonging  to  the  widow  of 
the  late  Lord  Amherst,  of  Chinese  memory.  Parts  of  it  date  from 
the  time  of  King  John,  and  none  is  more  recent  than  the  time  of 
Henry  VIII.  It  is  very  extensive,  few  old  castles  being  so  large,  and 
it  has  an  awful,  hard,  grim,  feudal  look,  so  slight  haVe  been  the 

changes  made  in  it The  drive  was  fine.     Its  ovm  park  is  very 

large,  and  we  took  another  in  our  way  back. 

August  6.  —  ....  The  day  has  been  cool  and  beautiful.  I  lounged 
in  the  library  an  hour  or  so  after  breakfast,  and  then  wrote  and  read  in 

*  Mr.  Humphrey  Mildmay  had  been  in  Boston  some  years  before. 


388  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 


great  quiet  and  peace  till  it  was  time  to  drive.  I  enjoy  this  life  Very 
miicli.     I  did  not  know  how  tired  I  was  till  I  began  to  rest 

Our  drive  to-day  was  to  Sir  Somebody  Dyke's,  whose  family  have 
held  the  property  on  which  they  now  live  above  five  hundred  years. 
They  were  not  at  home,  nor  was  Lady  Amherst  yesterday,  and  I  was 
glad  of  both.  The  Dyke  house  is  nothing,  modern  and  ugly  ;  but 
there  is  a  fine  old  gate,  all  covered  with  ivy,  and  a  little  church  still 
older,  just  big  enough  for  a  good-sized  family  to  assemble  in,  and  full 
of  "  old  brasses,"  as  they  are  called It  is  a  curious  old  place. 

After  we  came  home  we  walked  about  Mildmay's  domain,  where  I 
found  a  good  deal  that  is  tasteful  and  agreeable,  which  you  will  re- 
member, both  in  the  brilliant  flower-garden  behind  the  house  and  the 
park-like  scenery  in  front  of  it.  Mildmay  has  about  three  thousand 
acres  in  all,  and  seems  to  be  adding  a  good  deal  to  its  value  by  build- 
ing nice  cottages  in  his  village,  and  a  pleasant  extension  of  the  house 
towards  the  east 

Chevening,  August  7,  1857.  —  ....  We  lingered  at  the  breakfast- 
table  yesterday,  and  the  girls,  instead  of  going  to  their  governess, 
stopped  to  see  me  off",  —  a  symptom  that  they  liked  my  visit  as  well 
as  they  said  they  did,  ....  which  was  not  unpleasant  to  me.  At 
any  rate,  on  my  part  I  was  sorry  to  leave  them  all,  for  they  have 
been  very  kind  to  me,  and  Mrs.  Mildmay  is  a  person  whose  character 
and  accomplishments  are  equally  rare  and  attractive.  Mildmay  drove 
me  over  here.  The  road  was  pleasant,  and  lay  through  the  valley  in 
which  both  his  estate  and  Lord  Stanhope's  are  situated.  You  remem- 
ber it,  of  course,  as  you  must  also  rem-ember  Chevening,  and  so  I  will 
not  lay  out  any  of  my  words  in  describing  it.  Lady  Stanhope  came 
down  to  receive  me,  and  took  me  at  once  to  her  own  parlor,  w^here 
Lord  Stanhope  joined  us  immediately.  Monckton  Milnes  and  his 
wife  are  stopping  here,  as  well  as  Lady  Granville  Somerset,  .... 
and  Lady  Strafi'ord,  or  some  such  name,  which  I  did  not  well  hear. 

We  all  walked  out  into  the  park,  and  went  over  the  finer  parts  of 
it,  where,  among  other  things,  I  saw  some  Roman  remains  and  monu- 
ments, brought  by  the  first  great  Stanhope  from  Tarragona,  in  Spain, 
one  of  which  gives  much  offence  to  all  ladies,  because  it  makes  the 
crowning  virtue  of  the  wife  to  whose  memory  it  is  inscribed,  that  she 
was  2ixori  ohsequentissimce.  Lord  Stanhope  said  that  he  had  seen 
ladies  flush  with  indignation  at  it,  and  break  forth  into  unseemly 
expressions  of  anger. 

In  the  little  church,  which  is  very  becoming  the  family's  posi- 
tion,—  not  large,  but  picturesque  and  antique,  —  there  is  a  beautiful 


M.  66.]  CHEVENING.  389 

group  of  a  mother  and  child,  —  the  mother  only  twenty-three,  —  by 
Chantrey,  which  he  claimed  —  and  I  dare  say  rightly  —  to  be  the 
best  of  his  works.  It  is  certamly  worthy  to  be  such,  by  its  purity 
and  grace.  Afterwards  I  went  over  the  house,  as  you  did  last  year. 
It  was  built  by  Inigo  Jones,  and  may  have  been  good  as  he  left  it, 
but  it  has  been  so  altered  and  enlarged,  that,  except  the  fine  staircase, 
and  the  entrance-hall  all  covered  with  arms  brought  home  as  tro- 
phies from  the  W' ar  of  the  Spanish  Succession,  there  is  nothing  —  or 
very  little  —  to  admire  in  it,  except  two  or  three  good  rooms.  The 
library  is  large,  and  I  occupied  myself  there  for  an  hour  or  more 
among  the  old  Spanish  books,  some  of  which  are  curious. 

After  lunch  ....  I  took  a  long  drive  about  the  country  with 
Lady  Stanhope  and  Lady  Granville  Somerset.  It  is  a  beautiful  re- 
gion, —  indeed,  the  whole  of  the  county  of  Kent  has  a  good  reputation, 
—  and  as  the  weather  was  bright  and  cool,  I  much  enjoyed  it.  In  the 
course  of  the  drive  we  stopped  at  a  most  neat  and  even  elegant  little 
cottage,  standing  in  the  midst  of  a  rich  lawn,  full  of  shrubbery  and 
flower-beds,  where  there  still  lives  Miss  Thrale,  one  of  the  daughters 
of  Johnson's  Thrale,  whose  brewery  —  as  Lady  Stanhope  told  me  — 
is  now  that  of  Barclay  Perkins  &  Co.  Miss  Thrale  is  of  course  no 
longer  young.  She  is,  in  fact,  eighty-seven  years  old,  but  she  is  a 
stout,  easy,  comfortable  old  lady,  full  of  good  w^orks  and  alms,  and 
one  who,  as  she  has  no  love  for  books,  —  or  very  little,  —  does  not 
care  to  talk  about  Dr.  Johnson,  and  still  less  about  her  mother.  But 
her  cottage  and  grounds  are  in  excellent  taste,  and  well  become  the 
character  and  position  of  their  possessor,  who  is  much  liked  through 
all  the  country  side. 

We  returned  by  "  Chatham's  drive,"  as  it  is  called,  a  road  through 
the  highest  part  of  the  park,  two  or  three  miles  long,  which  Lord 
Chatham  advised  to  be  cut,  when  he  occupied  Chevening  in  1769.  It 
proves  him  to  have  been  a  man  of  excellent  taste,  for  the  view  from  it 

is  one  of  the  finest  I  know  of  the  sort Lord  Chatham  said  he 

thought  it  the  finest  view  in  the  kingdom.  I  suppose  it  may  be  the 
finest  view  of  an  approach  to  such  a  mansion. 

....  One  or  two  neighbors  were  invited  to  dinner  and  were  pleas- 
ant, especially  a  very  rich  Mr.  Rogers,  learned  in  the  natural  sciences. 
....  Milnes  said  smart,  epigrammatic  things  in  abundance  after  his 
fashion  ;  .  .  .  .  but  as  I  took  in  Lady  Stanhope  to  dinner,  I  devoted 
myself  to  her,  and  had  the  best  of  the  talk,  I  suspect.  She  is  very 
bright,  and  extremely  quick  of  apprehension.  I  went,  a  part  of  the 
evening,  to  Lord  Stanhope's  private  working-room,  and  looked  over 


390  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 


some  curious  old  family  papers.  The  rest  of  it  we  spent  in  the  saloon 
very  agreeably,  some  of  it  very  gayly. 

Saturday,  August  8.  —  Off  with  Milnes —  after  an  early  breakfast  — 
for  London,  where,  having  two  or  three  hours  to  spare,  I  went  to  see 
the  Great  Eastern,  which  Twisleton,  Lord  Stanhope,  and  sundry  other 
persons  have  urged  me  very  much  to  see,  as  one  of  the  wonders  of  the 

time At  four  o'clock  I  met  Mr.  Sturgis  by  appointment  at  the 

railroad  station,  near  Waterloo  Bridge,  and  came  with  him  seventeen 

miles,  to  pass  Sunday  at  his  place  near  Walton Finding  Wey- 

bridge  to  be  only  two  and  a  half  miles  from  here,  I  drove  over  there 
and  returned  Mrs.  Austin's  call,  but  was  sorry  to  find  her  away  from 
home  for  a  couple  of  days.  I  should  have  liked  one  more  talk  with 
her 

August  10.  — .  .  .  .  I  came  to  London  in  an  early  train  this  morn- 
ing. The  weather  was  brilliant  when  I  left  Walton,  all  fog  when  I 
arrived  forty  minutes  later.  Not  caring  to  go  myself  all  the  way  to 
Rutland  Gate,  I  drove  to  the  Athenaeum  for  my  breakfast,  and  de- 
spatched my  servant  thence  for  my  letters.  At  eleven  I  was  at  the 
station  of  King's  Cross,  and  took  my  place  for  Bolton  Percy,  where  I 
arrived  —  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  miles — just  at  five  o'clock. 
The  journey  was  rendered  more  than  commonly  agreeable  by  the  fact 
that  I  came  in  the  same  carriage  with  a  Mr.  Norman,  his  wife  and 
daughter,  and  a  son  fresh  from  Eton,  who  are  neighbors  of  Mildmay, 
and  whom  Mildmay  had  invited  to  dine  to  meet  me.  Mr.  Norman  is 
much  of  a  scholar,  a  man  of  large  fortune,  and  Mildmay  had  told  me 
that  he  had  been  very  sorry  he  could  not  come  to  dinner,  as  he  liked 
my  book  ;  a  fact  he  did  not  at  all  conceal  from  me.  We  had  a  good 
time,  and  parted  great  friends 

I  was  most  heartily  received  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harcourt,"^  both  look- 
ing just  as  they  did  last  year.  It  is  a  most  comfortable  place  ;  a  fine 
old  rambling  house,  with  a  rich  lawn,  —  which  they  are  just  now 
shaving,  though  it  looks,  in  Milton's  phrase,  close  shaven  already,  — 
and  on  one  side  of  it  an  ancient  picturesque  church,  such  as  you  often 
see  standing  just  in  the  right  place  to  ornament  an  English  landscape. 
....  In  the  evening  we  had  most  cheerful  talk  on  all  sorts  of  mat- 
ters, for  few  persons  have  more  richly  stored  minds  than  Mr.  Har- 
court 

Tuesday,  Aiigust  11.  —  After  a  cheerful  breakfast  Mr.  Harcourt  and 
I,  at  eleven  o'clock,  got  into  the  train  for  York,  and  arrived  there  in 
twenty  minutes.     The  old  city  looked  natural,  but  its  streets  and 

*  See  Vol.  I.  p.  435. 


M.  6G.]  BOLTON   PERCY.  391 

Bhops  are  gayer  than  they  were On  arriving  we  went  first  to 

the  Museum,  as  they  call  it,  with  its  beautiful  grounds,  and  the  remains 
of  a  Roman  wall,  and  the  graceful  ruins  of  a  rich  abbey  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  It  did  not  seem  two-and-twenty  years  since  I  saw 
them  last.  Nor  did  it  seem  so  long  since  we  all  went  over  the  grand 
old  minster  with  Mr.  Harcourt,  just  as  I  did  to-day.  It  is  in  admira- 
ble preservation  and  repair,  for  since  the  two  fires,  ....<£  120,000 
have  been  spent  with  excellent  judgment  and  taste,  under  ]\Ir.  Har- 
court's  direction.  We  saw  Mrs.  Harcourt  and  Lady  Susan  "^  in  the 
street,  —  in  a  carriage  fit  for  any  noble  lady,  —  to  make  purchases. 
Indeed,  their  whole  establishment  ....  is  of  the  most  liberal  sort, 
without  being  in  the  least  luxurious,  showy,  or  dainty.  It  is  becom- 
ing their  station  and  character,  and  indicates  what  is  certainly  true, 
that,  while  Mr.  Harcourt  is  rich,  ....  he  prefers  to  live  as  a  country 
clergyman  and  do  his  duty  thoroughly  as  such.  I  am  very  glad  to 
have  seen  such  an  establishment,  as  I  have  never  seen  one  before.  In 
the  winter,  for  three  months,  he  lives  in  that  more  elegant  and  luxu- 
rious establishment  in  York,  which  is  by  turns  the  official  residence 
of  the  canons  of  the  minster 

August  13.  — .  .  .  .  The  weather  was  very  brilliant  yesterday,  and 
in  the  afternoon  I  took  a  drive  of  sixteen  or  eighteen  miles  with  Mr. 

and  Mrs,  Harcourt  and  Lady  Susan  Harcourt We  visited,  in 

the  course  of  it,  two  of  those  beautiful  places  with  which  England 
abounds.  One  was  the  estate  of  the  Wenlocks,  where  I  saw  the 
Dowager,  who  is  a  Nevil,  which  is  tantamount  to  saying  one  of  the 
oldest  families  in  England.  The  Lawley  family,  into  which  she  mar- 
ried, however,  is  recent  and  rich,  the  Hall  and  its  gardens  showing 
their  resources,  and  a  new  church  and  rectory,  near,  showing  their 
good  taste  and  judgment. 

The  other  was  a  place  belonging  to  a  Mr.  Preston,  who  married  a 
grand-daughter  of  that  Pamela  who  figures  so  much  in  Mad.  de  Genlis' 
Memoirs,  and  who  was,  no  doubt,  a  daughter  of  Mad.  de  Genlis  and 
Philippe  Egalite. 

She  is  a  very  bright,  brilliant  little  Irish  woman,  and  so  is  her 
mother.  Lady  Campbell,  who  is  staying  with  her  ;  both  being  Avorthy 
of  their  descent  from  Mad.  de  Genlis  and  Lord  Edward  f  itzgerald. 

Mrs.  Harcourt  seems  to  like  them  both,  and  I  was  glad  to  see  them, 
as  she  much  desired  I  should.  Their  park  and  garden,  too,  are  fine. 
The  drive  and  visits  occupied  till  dinner-time,  —  indeed,  till  after 

*  Daiighter-in-law  of  Mr,  Harcourt. 

t  Pamela  having  married  Lord  Edward  Fitzgerald. 


392  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

the  usual  hour,  which  is   seven,  so   that   the   evening   was   rather 
short 

The  Harcourts  have,  many  times  since  I  have  been  here,  expressed 
their  regret  that  you  could  not  have  come  with  me,  and  just  now, 
when  I  was  down  stairs,  Mrs.  Harcourt  charged  me  afresh  to  express 
it  to  you.  You  remember  what  a  charming  woman  she  is,  but  I 
assure  you  she  is  nowhere  so  charming  as  in  her  own  house.  The 
interest  she  has  taken  in  Lizzie's  sickness  ....  is  most  gratifymg. 
I  am  very  sorry  to  leave  them 

Wentworth  House,  ylw^fws^  13.  — .  .  .  .  At  half  past  three  I  bade 
the  good,  kind,  intellectual  Harcourts  good  by,  and  between  seven 
and  eight  drove  through  the  grand  old  park,  and  came  up  to  that 
famous  Italian  front  which  is  a  good  deal  longer  than  Park  Street. 
....  A  magnificent  porter  and  six  or  seven  livery-servants  appeared 
at  once,  and  then  the  groom  of  the  chambers,  who  said  in  his  most 
elegant  black-silk-stocking  manner,  "  My  lord  will  receive  you,  sir" ; 
and  then,  perhaps  noticing  that  I  looked  amused,  he  added  very 
blandly,  "  My  lord  hoped  you  would  come  to-night."     I  was  carried 

at  once  to  the  long  gallery There  was  no  mistake  about  the 

matter.     They  were  glad  to  see  me,  and  in  ten  minutes  it  was  as  if  I 
had  been  there  a  month. 

Lord  Fitzwilliam  is  somewhat  infirm,  but  is  stronger  than  he  was 
two  or  three  years  ago,  when  his  health  was  impaired  by  an  accident. 
He  was,  as  Lady  Charlotte  told  me,  stopping  on  the  sea-coast  with  the 
ladies  of  the  family,  —  at  Folkestone,  I  think,  —  and  one  day,  as  he 
stood  on  the  shore,  observed  a  young  servant  who  was  bathing  and 
playing  in  the  water.  He  turned  to  see  something  else,  and  on  look- 
ing back  in  an  instant  the  youth  had  disappeared.  Old  as  he  was  — 
sixty-eight  — he  plunged  in,  swam  to  him,  and,  seizing  him  and  seized 
by  him,  turned  for  the  shore.  But  he  was  soon  exhausted,  and  both 
were  at  last  saved  by  his  coachman.  It  was  above  a  year  before  he 
recovered  from  the  effects  of  his  exertions. 

August  14.  — .  .  .  .  After  breakfast  Lord  Fitzwilliam  asked  me  to 
go,  with  him  and  Lady  Charlotte,  to  an  examination  of  his  schools  by 
the  Inspector  of  the  District.  It  was  in  the  village  of  Wentworth  ; 
....  that  is,  the  girls  were  there  to  the  number  of  one  hundred 
and  eighty,  from  four  years  to  fourteen.  The  boys  are  elsewhere,  to 
be  examined   next  week.      The  school-house,  divided   into   several 

rooms,  is  excellent  and  in  good  taste,  built  by  the  present  lord 

The  examination  was  excellent,  done  with  kindness  and  skill 

The  doctrines  of  the  church  and  the  history  of  the  Jews  were  well 


M.  m.']  WEXTWORTH   HOUSE.  393 

insisted  upon,  and  the  children  were  less  quick  and  eager  than  ours. 
Otherwise,  the  examination  might  have  occurred  in  Massachusetts. 
But  I  do  not  suppose  that  many  schools  are  like  those  cared  for  by 
Lord  Fitzwilliam. 

We  drove  afterwards  about  the  immense  park On  our  re- 
turn from  this  excursion,  —  as  it  may  well  be  called  from  its  length, 
—  we  walked  on  that  beautiful  terrace  built  up  so  grandly,  and  as 
soft  to  the  foot  as  velvet,  for  half  a  mile.  It  is  finer  than  it  was 
formerly,  some  of  the  trees  having  been  cut  away,  and  a  greater 
breadth  given  to  it 

I  spent  a  part  of  the  evening  in  looking  over  several  volumes  of  the 
correspondence  of  the  great  Earl  of  Strafford  and  his  friends,  of  which 
Lord  Fitzwilliam  has  eight  or  ten,  all  autographs  ;  and  in  talking 
with  him  about  that  stirring  period  of  English  history,  with  which  he 
seems  to  be  as  familiar  as  we  are  with  what  has  passed  in  our  owti 
times.  Some  of  the  private  letters  of  Strafford  to  his  agent,  the  man- 
ager of  his  Yorkshire  estates,  and  some  about  his  wife's  health,  are  very 
curious.  Those  on  political  matters  are  grand,  strong,  decisive,  as  he 
was  himself.  I  do  not  know  but  Evelyn  was  right,  when  he  called 
him  "  the  wisest  head  in  Europe." 

August  15.  — .  .  .  .  After  breakfast,  I  went  with  Lady  Charlotte 
over  some  parts  of  the  house  that  I  cared  to  see  again,  looked  at  some 
of  the  fine  pictures  of  the  Italian  school,  —  the  Salvators,  the  so-called 
Raffaelle,  the  Titians,  —  and  then  the  portraits  of  Strafford  and  his 
friends  by  Vandyck,  which  are  certainly  among  the  best  Vandycks 

to  be  seen  anywhere But  when  I  had  taken  this  long  walk 

through  the  interminable  series  of  rooms,  —  that  you  cannot  have  for- 
gotten, —  it  was  time  for  me  to  go.  They  all  sent,  anew,  kindest  mes- 
sages to  you.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  did  not  get  up  from  his  chair.  He 
took  my  hand  in  both  of  his,  and  was  very  much  moved.  At  last  he 
said,  "  I  hope  we  may  meet  again  in  a  better  place,"  and  as  I  went 
away  added,  calling  aloud  after  me,  "  Good  by,  dear  Mr.  Ticknor. 
God  bless  you."  .... 

At  Rotherham  I  took  the  railroad  and  dashed  on  for  Northumber- 
land, ....  arriving  at  our  old  friend  Sir  Walter  Trevelyan's  just  as 
twilight  was  closing  in.  He  lives  about  twelve  miles  from  Morpeth, 
where  I  left  the  railroad,  and  in  driving  to  his  place  —  which  is 
called  Wallington  —  I  passed  through  a  broken  country  that  looked 
very  beautiful  in  the  declining  light.  On  arriving,  I  was  ushered 
into  a  grand  saloon,  where  there  was  a  bright  coal-fire,  —  for  the 
weather  is  chilly,  —  and  found  half  a  dozen  or  more  people  sitting 

17* 


394  LIFE  OF  GEOPvGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

round  it,  and  in  different  parts  of  the  room.  I  was  most  warmly- 
received,  ....  and  introduced  to  the  party  stopping  with  them, 
among  whom  are  the  youngest  son  of  Percival,  the  Minister  who  was 
shot ;  Professor  Donkin,  Mathematical  Professor  at  Oxford,  —  great 
in  music,  —  with  his  wife  ;  and  a  daughter  of  the  late  Dr.  Buckland  : 
all,  as  I  find,  accomplished  and  intellectual  peojDle,  but  —  as  you  will 
readily  guess  —  not  more  so  than  my  host  and  hostess.  We  made  a 
pleasant  evening  of  it 

Sunday,  August  16.  —  I  find  myself  in  the  midst  of  a  very  rich  and 
fine  establishment.  Sir  Walter  has  twenty-three  thousand  acres  of 
land  here,  some  of  it  moors,  but  the  greater  part  very  valuable  as  a 
grazing  country  and  fully  stocked  with  cattle  ;  while  in  Somerset- 
shire he  has  another  estate  of  twelve  thousand  acres,  which  comes  to 

him  from  the  elder  branch  of  the  Raleighs Everything  is  in 

perfect  order His  village,  the  school-house,  the  house  of  his 

agent,  and  the  parsonage,  are  all  as  neat  and  as  comfortable  as  any- 
thing in  the  kingdom  ;  the  two  last  having,  besides,  a  little  air  of 
refinement  and  elegance.  Everything,  indeed,  betokens  knowledge 
and  kindness.  His  own  house  is  of  stone,  a  hundred  feet  square, 
built  in  the  Italian  fashion  round  a  court.  But  this  court  —  as  you 
will  remember  at  Althorp  —  he  has  covered  over,  and  made  it  into  a 
superb  music-room,  running  up  through  two  stories,  and  about  forty- 
five  feet  by  thirty-five  square,  the  walls  of  which  he  is  now  having 
painted  with  subjects  from  the  local  history  of  Northumberland,  be- 
ginning with  the  building  of  the  Roman  wall.  Lady  Trevelyan  is 
painting  the  spaces  between  the  pictures  with  native  plants,  and  doing 
it  in  oils  and  from  nature.     It  is  alreadv  a  beautiful  room. 

One  side  of  the  house,  looking  out  upon  the  lawn  and  flower-beds, 
has  the  dining-room,  the  saloon,  and  the  library,  all  opening  into 
each  other ;  each  above  thirty  feet  long,  with  a  good  many  pictures 
by  Sir  Joshua,  and  some  by  Italian  artists,  and  the  library  filled  with 
about  six  thousand  volumes  of  books,  after  Sir  Walter's  own  heart ; 
many  very  curious,  but  aU  bought  because  he  wanted  them.  His 
chief  studies,  as  you  may  remember,  were  in  botany,  mineralogy,  and 
geology,  but  he  has  done  a  good  deal  in  Oriental  literature,  and  is 
very  rich  in  old  English  —  having  been  one  of  the  Bannatyne  Club 
—  and  in  the  local  literature  and  history  of  Northumberland.  In- 
deed, it  is  a  very  precious  library,  and  although  I  care  nothing  about 
one  half  of  it,  the  other  half  interests  me  more  than  any  similar  col- 
lection of  books  that  I  have  seen  for  a  long  time. 

Besides  this,  he  has  up  stairs  a  very  extraordinary  museum,  con- 


M.  m.^  WALLINGTON.  395 

tainiiig  forty  or  fifty  thousand  curious  articles  in  natural  history  and 
in  art,  collected  by  some  of  his  ancestors,  ....  and  greatly  increased 
by  himself  and  his  wife  in  their  manifold  travellings,  and  brought 
into  order  by  his  own  care.  It  has,  I  understand,  a  considerable  repu- 
tation with  naturalists 

I  went  to  church  in  the  morning,  a  mile  off,  and  the  weather  being 

as  fine  as  possible,  most  of  us  walked The  rest  of  the  day  I 

lounged  about  in  the  bright,  beautiful  sunshine  with  Mr.  Percival, 

Professor  Donkin,  and  Sir  Walter In  the  evening  we  were  in 

the  saloon,  where  Sir  Walter  brought  us  a  great  many  books  to  look 
at,  which  were  new  and  interesting  to  me,  and  which,  with  his  talk 
about  them  and  Lady  Trevelyan's,  made  the  time  seem  very  short. 
....  She  is  as  active-minded,  natural,  and  cordial  as  she  ever  was, 
with  ways  a  little  freer,  and  on  that  account  more  agreeable.  She 
said  to-day  that  she  was  forty-one  years  old,  but  she  is  little  changed 
from  what  she  was  when  we  knew  her,  and  is  as  charming  as  any  one 
I  have  seen  for  a  long  time 

Monday,  August  17. — After  spending  a  couple  of  hours  in  the  li- 
brary, I  went  with  Trevelyan  to  see  his  gardens  and  greenhouses,  half 
a  mile  off,  and,  as  he  truly  says,  much  too  large  for  his  establishment. 
....  We  have  abundant  proof  daily  how  fine  they  are,  in  the 
grapes,  peaches,  figs,  etc.,  that  come  to  the  table.  Declining  a  drive, 
....  I  walked  with  Trevelyan  to  one  of  his  villages,  and  went  into 
some  of  the  houses,  which  I  found  as  neat  as  possible,  and  talked  with 
three  or  four  of  the  people,  who  seemed  intelligent,  and  quicker  of 
comprehension,  and  more  vigilant  in  observation,  than  is  common  to 
their  class  here.  Except  their  accent,  I  might  have  thought  them  to 
be  good  New-Englanders 

August  18.  —  Lady  Trevelyan  was  at  work  this  morning  on  the 
plants  with  which  she  is  ornamenting  her  music-room.  She  paints 
very  successfully,  and  very  faithfully.  Meantime,  with  her  husband, 
I  turned  over  above  an  hundred  water-color  sketches  which  she  made 
in  Greece,  not  so  remarkable  as  works  of  art,  —  though  A^erv  erood, — 
but  evidently  full  of  truth,  and  not  touched  or  finished  up  in  the 
least  afterwards.  But  this  was  the  last  of  my  pleasures  in  this  re- 
markable establishment,  where  I  have  enjoyed  so  much,  for  it  was 
time  to  go.  The  whole  party  came  with  me  to  the  door,  .  .  .. ,. 
bidding  me  good  by,  with  many  kind  wishes  that  we  might  meet 
again,  with  all  sorts  of  kind  messages  from  the  Trevelvans  to  vou 
at  home.  Indeed,  I  very  much  wished  you  had  been  with  me  there, 
you  would  have  so  enjoyed  it. 


396  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1857. 

August  19. — .  .  .  .  I  left  Derby  ....  late  this  morning;  I  was 
soon  in   the   smother  of  the   manufacturing  district,   and   passing 
through  Dudley  came  to  AVolverhampton,  where  I  took  a  cab,  which 
^  in  two  hours  brought  me  nineteen  miles  to  Sir  John  Acton's,  at  Alden- 

ham  Park.     I  arrived  about  four  o'clock,  was  most  heartily  received, 
and  came  to  my  room,  ....  and  went  down  to  dinner  at  half  past 

seven Sir  John's  establishment,  of  which  I  have  yet  seen  very 

little,  is  perfectly  appointed,  and  in  admirable  order.     The  house  is 
as  large  as  Trevelyan's,  and  not  unlike  it ;  and  he,  a  young  bachelor, 
can  occupy  only  a  small  part  of  it.     Nobody  was  at  table  except  his 
>  chaplain,  Mr.  Morris,  one  of  the  Oxford  convertites,  and  knowni  for 

one  of  the  first  English  scholars  in  Oriental  and  Sanscrit  literature. 
We  were  in  the  midst  of  the  first  course  when  your  letters  came  ; 
and  I  instantly  read  enough  of  them  to  give  a  new  zest  to  the  other 
courses.  Sir  John  was  full  of  talk,  and  knowledge  of  books  and 
things,  and  by  the  help  of  a  cigar,  —  w^hich  the  chaplain  and  I  took, 
but  not  Sir  John,  —  we  w^ent  on  till  near  midnight.  He  is  certainly 
a  most  remarkable  young  man,  and  much  advanced  and  ripened  since 
we  saw  him. 

August  20.  —  Sir  John's  estate  here  in  Shropshire  —  he  has  lands 
elsewhere  —  consists  of  eight  thousand  acres,  a  part  of  which  has 
been  in  his  family  above  five  centuries.  His  house,  built  about  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  is  in  the  Italian  style  of  that  period,  and 
the  court,  in  the  centre  of  its  quadrangle,  has  been  covered  in,  and  he 
is  now  making  it  into  a  grand  library,  books  just  at  this  time  being 

his  passion 

August  21.  —  Sir  John  lives  here,  somewhere  between  prince  and 
hermit,  in  a  most  agreeable  style.  Yesterday,  before  dinner,  we  took 
a  long  walk  in  the  park,  which  I  enjoyed  very  much,  some  of  the 
prospects  being  admirable.  ....  He  fills  up  all  his  time  with  read- 
ing, and  is  one  of  the  most  eager  students  I  have  ever  known.  He 
will  certainly  make  his  mark  on  the  world  if  he  lives  long  enough. 
....  We  lounged  among  his  books,  old  and  new,  till  dinner-time, 
which  proved  to-day  to  be  near  eight  o'clock  ;  dined  quite  alone  at 
a  luxurious  and  dainty  table,  and  then  had  a  solid  and  agreeable  talk, 
one  so  solid  and  agreeable  that  it  kept  me  up  till  nearly  midnight 

again,  w^hich  was  not  according  to  my  purpose My  windows 

are  open,  and  I  look  out  both  east  and  south  into  the  park,  where, 
besides  the  superb  avenue,  w^hich  is  full  before  me,  there  are  some 
of  the  grandest  old  trees  I  have  seen  in  England,  and  on  one  side  a 
very  tasteful  garden  and  the  chapel,  where  mass  is  performed  daily, 


M.  m.^  ELLERBECK.  397 

and  where  the  chaphiin  lives.  It  is  a  very  beautiful  establishment, 
and  I  have  enjoyed  very  much  the  peculiar  life  1  have  led  here  the 
past  two  days,  not  overlooking  its  absolute  quiet  and  peace  as  one  of 
its  attractive  ingredients. 

Malvern,  August  23.  — .  .  .  .  I  was  up  in  good  season  yesterday 
morning,  and  when  breakfast  M'as  over  I  bade  Acton  farewell,  think- 
ins:  that  it  will  be  a  long  time  before  I  see  a  man  of  his  age  so  re- 
markable  as  he  is.  The  drive  was  a  beautiful  one,  first  down  his 
superb  avenue,  and  then  through  his  estates,  and  along  by  the  banks 
of  the  Severn,  —  Milton's  Severn,  —  or  at  least  in  its  valley,  to  Kid- 
derminster. There  I  took  the  railway,  which  brought  me  to  Worces- 
ter, and  in  an  hour  and  a  half  more,  in  a  sort  of  omnibus,  I  crept  up 
the  hills,  ....  and  was  tipped  up,  or  let  out,  only  a  very  short  dis- 
tance from  the  Twisletons',  and  climbing  a  little  farther  found  them 
in  the  most  comfortable  quarters,  ....  that  command  the  whole 
view  that  makes  Malvern  a  resort  so  famous,  for  both  invalids  and 
lovers  of  the  picturesque  in  nature 

I  walked  about  with  Ellen  and  her  husband,  dined  with  them,  and 
talked  on  till  near  ten,  when  I  came  to  a  nice  room  they  had  taken 

for  me,  ....  commanding   the  whole   prospect You  see  I 

keep  on  Avriting,  although  I  suppose  the  portfolio  on  which  my 
paper  now  lies  will  bring  you  the  letter.  But  it  is  a  trick  I  have 
fallen  into So  I  sit  with  my  windows  open  on  the  magnifi- 
cent prospect,  now  brilliant  with  more  than  an  English  sunshine, 
and,  as  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  said  to  Gibbon,  I  "do  nothing 
but  scribble,  scribble." 

Two  delightful  days  l\Ir.  Ticknor  thoroughly  enjoyed  in  the 
midst  of  that  grand  and  brilliant  scenery,  and  in  constant  in- 
tercourse with  most  affectionate  and  intellectual  friends.  On 
the  25th  of  August  he  parted  from  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Twisleton  for 
the  last  time,  with  deep  regret,  and  passing  through  Liverpool 
went  on  to  Ellerbcck,  Mr.  Cardwell's  seat,  near  ^Manchester. 

Nobody  was  at  home  to  receive  me  except  Mrs.  Card  well,  a  striking 
old  lady  of  seventy-seven,  who  shook  hands  with  me  most  kindly,  and 
told  me  her  son  expected  me,  *—  but  evidently  did  not  know  who  I 
was,  —  adding,  that  the  party  would  be  in  from  ^lanchester  very  soon, 
where  they  were  at  the  exhibition 

In  about  a  quarter  of  an  hour  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cardwell  came  in,  with 
Sir  Edmund  and  Lady  Head,  ....  and  Lady  Cranworth,  —  wife  of 


398  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

the  Lord  Chancellor "We  had  a  most  hearty  meeting,  and  I 

felt  at  home  at  once "We  dined  at  eight,  and  had  a  most  agree- 
able evening.  Sir  Edmund  is  in  great  force  ;  Lady  Head  is  charming, 
as  she  always  is  ;  and  Lady  Cranworth  is  quite  equal  to  her. 

Wednesday,  August  26.  —  The  estate  of  Ellerbeck  is  a  large  one  ; 
....  there  is  a  good  park,  fine  gardens  and  hot-houses,  and  a  man- 
sion which  they  are  at  this  moment  furnishing  and  fitting  anew. 
But  everything  is  comfortable,  and  the  cuisine,  with  some  other  parts 
of  the  establishment,  luxurious. 

Cardwell  carried  off  all  the  honors  at  Oxford  in  his  time  ;  is  still 
an  excellent  scholar  ;  was  five  years  a  barrister,  and  then  entered 
Parliament,  became  soon  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  President  of 
the  Board  of  Trade,  which  brought  him  into  the  cabinet  of  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  who  left  him  one  of  his  literary  executors.  He  has  an  abun- 
dance of  capital  anecdotes,  which  he  tells  in  a  most  agreeable  manner, 
and  makes  his  house  as  pleasant  as  possible  to  his  guests. 

Immediately  after  breakfast  all  seven  of  the  party  set  off  for  the 
exhibition  in  Manchester. 

In  the  vestibule  of  the  immense  and  well-proportioned  building,  — 
while  the  ladies  were  giving  up  their  parasols  and  taking  numbers 
for  them,  —  a  stout  man,  with  the  air  of  a  police  officer,  leaned  over 
the  barrier  to  me,  and  said,  "  I  want  to  speak  to  Sir  Edmund  Head." 
I  touched  Sir  Edmund,  and  the  man  gave  him  a  letter.  "When  he 
had  read  about  half  of  it,  he  tossed  it  to  me,  saying  a  little  impatient- 
ly, "  That  is  too  bad  ;  it  is  the  second  time  Labouchere  has  summoned 
me  back  to  London,  since  I  have  been  on  this  excursion."  I  read  it 
through,  and  found  he  was  sent  for  to  be  sworn  in  as  a  Pri\'y  Coun- 
cillor ;  a  great  honor,  which  can  be  conferred  on  him  only  on  Friday, 
as  that  is  the  last  meeting  of  the  Council  for  some  weeks  or  months. 
....  After  five  minutes'  consultation,  and  making  an  appointment 
with  Lady  Head  to  meet  her  on  Saturday  at  Tewksbury,  he  jumped 
into  a  cab,  and  w^as  off  for  Ellerbeck  and  London. 

As  soon  as  he  was  gone  the  rest  of  us  went  into  the  exhibition. 
At  first  I  was  much  bewildered.  The  building  is  so  vast,  and  the 
luimber  of  pictures,  statues,  bronzes,  engravings,  drawings,  and,  in. 
short,  everything  that  can  be  called  a  work  of  art,  is  so  immense,  that, 
with  five  or  six  thousand  people  walking  up  and  down,  it  was  a 
very  confusing  scene.  But  the  arrangement  is  good,  and  gradually 
the  whole  became  intelligible.     "We  first  took  a  walk  all  round,  and 

it  was  not  a  short  one The  result  on  my  mind  was,  that  the 

Italian  schools  were  not  so  strong  as  I  expected  to  find  them ;  the 


M.  m.'\  MANCHESTER  EXHIBITION.  399 

Spanish  stronger  ;  and  the  drawings  of  the  old  masters  very  numer- 
ous and  very  remarkable.  We  began  then  with  the  English  school, 
which  is,  of  course,  the  most  amply  represented,  and  gave  a  good  deal 
of  time  to  Hogarth,  whose  portraits  are  marvellous,  and  to  Sir  Joshua, 

whose  works  are  of  most  unequal  merit The  recent  school  was 

often  excellent  ;  Turner  various  and  contradictory,  but  occasionally 
very  fine  ;  the  Pre-RafFaellites  ridiculous,  almost  without  exception. 
On  the  whole,  the  English  school  was  never  before,  anywhere,  seen 
in  such  force  or  to  such  advantage. 

As  we  strolled  round  we  picked  up  Gibson,  the  sculptor,  who  has 
come  to  stay  at  Cardwell's,  and  who  is  in  all  respects  a  very  agreeable 

addition  to  our  party We  dined  late,  —  after  eight  o'clock,  — 

but  made  nearly  a  three-hours'  evening  of  it  afterwards,  so  agreeable 
is  the  party,  especially  Lady  Cranworth,  than  whom  I  have  seen  no 
lady  in  England  more  attractive  and  charming.  She  has  lately  been 
on  a  visit  to  old  Mrs.  Wordsworth,  to  whom  she  constantly  writes, 
and  for  whom  she  has  a  loving  sort  of  veneration  that  is  quite  beau- 
tiful  

August  27.  —  I  was  up  this  morning  in  good  season,  ....  writing 
letters,  chiefly  about  the  Library,  and  doing  other  Library  work,  which 
is  now  nearly  finished.  As  soon  as  breakfast  was  done  Cardwell  said, 
"  Ladies,  you  have  just  fifteen  minutes,"  and  in  less  time  we  were  all 
packed  into  the  carriage,  and  on  our  way  to  the  railroad.  The  halls 
were  not  so  full  to-day,  as  the  admission  is  two  and  sixpence  instead 

of  a  shilling We  looked  chiefly  at  pictures  of  note,  and  found 

our  account  in  not  permitting  ourselves  to  be  distracted.  The  num- 
ber of  such  pictures  is  larger  than  I  thought  at  first.     There  are  a 

good  many  of  the  Dutch  and  Flemish  schools  that  are  first-rate 

But  the  Murillos  and  Lord  Hertford's  collection  are  the  glory  of  the 
whole  exhibition. 

Again  we  had  a  pleasant  drive  home  and  a  most  agreeable  evening, 
which  ended  late  wdth  a  reluctant  parting  from  Lady  Head. 

August  28.  — .  .  .  .  We  fretted,  at  breakfast,  at  the  diminution  of 
our  party,  and  Lady  Cranworth  threatens  that  when  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor comes,  by  and  by,  she  will  ask  him  to  lay  an  injunction  that  I 
shall  not  go  out  of  the  kingdom.  Indeed,  Cardwell  has  made  a  sharp 
calculation  that  I  can  reach  Liverpool  to-morrow,  an  hour  and  a  half 
before  the  steamer  sails,  even  if  I  stop  to-night,  and  I  have  agreed  to 
do  it,  although  my  arrangements  had  all  been  made  to  sleep  at  the 
Adelphi  before  embarking. 

We  breakfasted,  as  usual,  somewhat  late,  but  were  off"  punctually. 


400  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

For  the  last  time  I  went  through  all  the  halls,  looking  a  little  more 
carefully  than  I  had  done  before  at  the  majolicas  and  other  curious 
ohjets  cVart,  but  coming  back  at  last  to  the  great  masters,  few  and 
far  between,  to  take  my  parting  look  at  them,  for  I  shall  never  again 
behold  any  of  them  in  this  world. 

Lord  Cranworth  arrived  hot  from  the  Woolsack,  and  overflowing 
with  talk  ;  a  kindly  old  man,  such  exactly  as  I  thought  him  in  Lon- 
don, and  very  frank  in  expressing  his  opinions.  We  listened,  of 
course,  with  much  interest  to  his  accounts  of  the  last  days  of  the  ses- 
sion, the  quarrels  about  the  Divorce  Bill,  and  the  London  gossip  gen- 
erally, that  he  brought  with  him,  sitting  up  till  quite  one  o'clock  to 
enjoy  it. 

August  29.  —  Breakfast  was  a  little  earlier,  to  make  sure  of  my  arri- 
val in  Liverpool,  or  rather  at  the  railway  station,  in  season,  for,  as  I 
told  them  yesterday,  there  must  be  no  slip  between  Ellerbeck  and  the 
side  of  the  Europa.  All  were  pmictual,  and  said  many  kind  things 
about  my  going  away But  at  ten  I  was  off",  the  party  follow- 
ing me  to  the  door,  and  at  half  past  eleven  I  was  in  Liverpool,  having 
foimd  Hawthorne  in  the  cars,  to  enliven  my  last  moments.  I  drove 
straight  to  the  Barings',  and  got  a  plenty  of  letters,  but  opened  only 
Anna's  thoughtful,  charming  little  note  of  the  14th,  which  had  not 
been  in  Liverpool  two  hours,  and  which  will  make  my  voyage  cheer- 
ful and  bright  as  nothing  else  can. 

Then  I  went  to  the  Adelphi,  and  found  a  note  from  Ellen  Twisle- 
ton,  and  then  to  a  bookseller's  for  something  to  read.  My  time  was 
now  all  gone.  Just  before  one  o'clock  I  was  on  board  the  steamer. 
Bright  came  to  take  leave  of  me,  full  of  life  and  cordiality,  as  he  al- 
ways is,  and  sent  kind  words  to  all  of  you,  which  I  shall  bring. 


M.  G6.]  MR.  JUSTICE  CURTIS.  401 


CHAPTEE    XX. 

Letters,  1857-59,  to  Judge  Curtis,  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Sir  C.  Lyell, 
Mr.  R.  H.  Gardiner. — Letter  from  Baron  Humboldt.  —  Letters  to 
Mr.  Everett,  Hon.  E.  Twisleton,  Sir  W.  C.  Trevelyan. 

THE  following  letter  —  which,  being  chiefly  concerned  with 
our  national  afi'airs,  belongs  rather  in  the  present  chapter 
than  where  its  date  would  have  placed  it  —  is  addressed  to  a 
person  whose  slight  connection  with  tliis  book  is  no  indication 
of  his  position  in  Mr.  Ticknor's  esteem.  Judge  Curtis  was  re- 
garded by  his  uncle  with  an  affectionate  and  faithful  interest 
from  his  boyhood,  and  in  his  maturer  years  he  became  the  object 
of  a  respect,  and  admiration,  which  seemed  to  neutrahze  the  natu- 
ral effect  of  their  relative  ages.  The  appointment  of  Mr.  Curtis  to 
a  seat  on  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
in  1851,  gratified  Mr.  Ticknor  in  an  extreme  degree,  while  he 
felt  that  it  was  the  place  for  which  his  nephew  was  by  all  the 
quahties  of  his  mind  and  character  expressly  fitted ;  and  his 
high  judicial  reputation,  and  the  estimation  in  which  he  came 
to  be  held  throughout  the  country,  seemed  to  confirm,  by  gen- 
eral testimony,  the  justice  of  Mr.  Ticknor's  privately  cherished 
opinion.  Judge  Curtis,  however,  was  never  a  diligent  corre- 
spondent, and  when  the  constant  intercourse  between  him  and  his 
uncle,  in  Boston,  was  interrupted  by  the  absence  of  either,  the 
absorbing  nature  of  his  professional  engagements  interfered  very 
seriously  with  any  attempt  at  epistolary  communication.  Their 
mutual  confidence  was  too  faithful  to  suffer  by  such  temporary 
silence. 

This  letter  is  characteristic  of  both  men,  inasmuch  as  their 
conversation  was  always  on  matters  of  grave  and  weighty 
import. 


402  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

To  Mr.  Justice  Curtis. 

Florence,  May  12,  1857. 

My  dear  Judge,*  —  I  thank  you  for  your  letter  of  Feloruary  27, 
wliicli  I  received,  I  think,  in  Naples,  but  which  I  have  been  too 
busy  earlier  to  answer.  However,  this  is  of  no  moment ;  I  do  not 
profess  to  be  a  regular  correspondent  any  more  than  you  do.  It  is 
enough  for  both  of  us  that  your  letter  was  most  welcome,  and  that  I 
am  glad  of  a  chance  to  say  so. 

Your  view  of  the  present  condition  and  future  prospects  of  the 
affau^s  of  the  United  States — written,  I  suspect,  not  without  thought 
of  the  coming  shadow  of  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  in  Dred  Scott's  case  —  is  certainly  not  cheering.  My 
own  opinion  is  of  little  value,  to  be  sure  ;  but  it  is  at  least  formed 
coolly  at  a  distance,  and  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  it  is  not  brighter  than 
yours 

This  condition  of  things  is  at  last  coming  to  be  perceived  in  Eu- 
rope ;  but  the  opinions  formed  on  it  by  intelligent  men,  as  I  have 
gradually  learnt  them,  are  seldom  wise,  and  often  tinctured  with  the 
national  interests,  or  personal  character  of  the  individuals  who  ex- 
press them.  We  are  no  doubt  felt  to  be  a  power  in  Christendom  as 
we  were  never  felt  to  be  before  ;  for  we  are,  so  to  speak,  visibly  and 
tangibly  grown  great  and  rich,  and  are  fast  growing  greater  and 
richer.  The  two  parties  —  liberal  and  conservative  —  into  which 
Europe  has  long  been  separated,  look  upon  us  in  this  respect  alike, 
and  intelligently  enough ;  but  when  they  go  a  little  further  and  come 

*  Mr.  George  T.  Curtis  places  among  his  reminiscences,  sent  to  Mr.  Hillard, 
the  following  anecdote  :  — 

"  When  my  brother  [the  late  Benjamin  R.  Curtis]  received  the  appointment 
to  the  Bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  an  appointment 
which,  as  you  know,  came  to  him  unsought,  but  with  the  approbation  of  all 
New  England,  Mr.  Ticknor  was  deeply  gratified  and  not  a  little  excited  by 
the  event,  as  well  he  might  be  ;  for  no  person  had  ever  lived  who  had  con- 
tributed, more  than  he,  to  the  formation  of  the  character  of  the  man  who  had 
thus  been  elevated  at  an  early  age  to  one  of  the  highest  judicial  positions  in 
the  country.  Speaking  to  me  on  the  subject,  as  he  felt,  he  ended  by  saying, 
'Well,  I  believe  we  must  now  leave  off  calling  him  Ben,'  as  my  brother  had 
always  been  called  in  the  family  circle  and  among  his  familiar  friends.  Some- 
what amused  by  my  uncle's  earnestness,  I  said,  'What  shall  we  call  him?' 
*  He  must  be  called  the  Judge,'  was  his  decisive  answer.  We  agreed,  and  con- 
formed to  this,  as  an  authoritative  family  decree." 

After  Mr.  Ticknor's  death,  in  a  conversation  betAveen  the  brothers.  Judge 
Curtis  said  of  his  uncle,  "  What  I  owe  to  that  man  is  not  to  be  measured." 


iE.  ee.]  LETTER  TO  JUDGE  CURTIS.  403 

to  our  present  position  and  contests,  they  divide,  and  both  fall  into 
grave  errors  according  to  their  respective  parties.  The  liberals  de- 
mand the  abolition  of  slavery,  much  in  the  same  sense  in  which 
Garrison  demands  it,  and  if  this  cannot  be  effect-ed,  would  gladly  see 
the  North  separated  from  the  South,  nut  at  all  comprehending  the  con- 
sequences of  disunion  to  the  whole  country,  or  its  fatal  effects  on  the 
slave.  Their  philanthropy,  from  the  days  of  the  French  Republic,  has 
been  an  important  part  of  their  political  judgments  and  systems  at 
home,  though  not  always  a  wise  or  consistent  part  of  them,  and  they 
carry  it  now  vehemently  into  their  opinions  of  us,  whom  they  have 
been  accustomed  to  look  up  to  with  more  admiration,  perhaps,  than 
we  have  deserved,  as  regards  our  form  of  government  and  our  institu- 
tions as  desirable  and  practicable  to  introduce  througliout  Europe. 
But  our  slavery  is  a  great  trouble  to  them.  They  have  always  felt  it 
to  be  such  ;  but  since  the  immense  success  of  "  Uncle  Tom,"  —  which 
is  still  acted,  I  am  told,  in  the  popular  theatres  in  many  parts  of  Eu- 
rope, and  was  certainly  acted  in  Rome  last  winter  when  I  was  there, 
—  and  since  the  bearing  of  slavery  on  our  union  and  destinies  has 
been  discussed  in  Congress,  and  by  our  Presidents  in  their  messages, 
the  liberal  party,  throughout  Europe,  have  everywhere  taken  it  up  in 

earnest 

The  opinion  of  the  aristocracies  and  governments  of  Europe  —  ex- 
cepting always  Russia,  who,  for  obvious  reasons,  is  our  natural  ally 
against  all — at  least  is  simple  and  inevitable.  They  acknowledge  our 
power,  but  they  do  not  like  it  and  never  have,  and  they  wish  to  see 
it  diminished,  which  they  know  it  would  be,  inevitably,  by  disunion. 
They  can,  as  they  see  plainly,  manage  their  affairs  better  with 
America  divided,  and  weak  by  di\dsion,  than  with  America  united, 
already  strong  and  growing  stronger.  They  can,  too,  better  oppose 
liberal  and  disorganizing  opinions  at  home,  when  they  can  appeal  to 
such  a  failure  as  disunion  would  be  of  our  grand  experiment  of  a  free 
government  in  the  United  States,  which  has  always  been  a  main  sup- 
port of  those  opinions  in  Europe.  You  will  find  abundant  traces  of 
this  feeling,  even  in  England.  The  English  like  our  growing  rich  so 
far  as  it  leads  us  to  buy  their  fabrics,  but  they  do  not  like  to  have 
us  gro^ving  very  strong,  lest  we  should  claim  a  high  place'  among  the 
nations,  and  make  trouble  in  the  world.  Multitudes  among  them 
cry  out  very  honestly  against  our  slavery,  and  take  part  with  the 
North,  to  help  put  it  down  by  force  of  the  world's  opinion.  But, 
when  once  wx  are  separated,  they  will  make  the  best  treaties  they 
can  for  their  ovra  interests  with  both  parties.     In  doing  this,  philan- 


_J 


404  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

thropy  will  have  as  little  to  do  with,  their  diplomacy  as  it  has  had 
in  China.  Their  manufactures  will  be  admitted  free  at  the  South, 
and  they  will  receive  free  the  great  staples  they  need  in  return  ;  — 
but  we  at  the  North  cannot  make  such  treaties  with  them  ;  and 
though  we  may  possibly,  but  not  probably,  get  Canada  and  Nova 
Scotia,  about  which  they  will  care  little,  we  can,  if  separated,  never 
have  profitable  or  really  satisfactory  relations  with  these  provinces,  or 
with  the  mother  country.  The  same  is  the  case,  though  in  an  inferior 
degree,  with  France  and  the  other  governments  of  the  Continent,  ex- 
cept, as  I  before  said,  with  Russia,  who  would  be  glad  to  have  us  for 
a  mighty  counterpoise  against  all  the  other  powers  of  Europe,  with  no 
one  of  whom  can  they  have  any  really  common  interests  or,  at  bot- 
tom, friendly  relations.  All  the  rest  of  the  great  aristocracies  have 
been  long  predicting  that  we  should  prove  to  be  like  fruit  imperfectly 
formed  and  nourished,  which  rots  without  ripening.  They  show  us 
up  now  as  cheats,  filibusters  who  go  for  lawless  conquests  of  foreign 
territory,  who  repudiate  our  honest  debts,  and  as  hj^ocrites  who 
boast  of  universal  suffrage  and  boundless  liberty,  while  we  hold  three 
million  of  our  fellow  creatures  in  slavery  ;  insinuating  always  that 
these  are  the  natural  results  of  democracy,  and  of  intrusting  power 
to  ignorant  hands  to  use.  And  their  opinions  are  beginning  to  be 
accepted  by  the  intelligent  classes,  who  have  heretofore  been  little 
inclined  to  them,  but  who,  after  seventy  years  of  sufferings  that  have 
followed  the  Revolution,  begin  to  fear  that  society  must  be  preserved, 
and  that  the  liberty  they  have  hoped,  and  often  struggled  for,  is  to  be 
given  up,  at  least  for  a  time,  to  do  it. 

I  do  not  know  whether,  in  writing  so  learnedly,  I  have  made  plain 
my  purpose,  and  so  I  will  explain  it.  I  have  desired  to  tell  you  that, 
in  my  judgment,  whenever  the  fatal  hour  that  strikes  the  dissolution 
of  our  Union  comes,  those  who  stand  by  it  longest  will  have  least 
sympathy  in  Europe.  The  c|uestion  will  be  understood  by  few,  and 
of  these  few  many  will  be  glad  to  have  our  country  divided,  for  the 
sake  of  the  benefits  that,  as  they  believe,  will  accrue  to  their  own 
institutions,  while  the  great  majority  will  regard  it  as  merely  a  com- 
mercial or  political  question,  to  be  determined  by  the  interests  of 
their  respective  countries,  which  will  generally  be  found  opposed  to 
our  greatness  and  to  the  success  of  our  principles  of  freedom  and  con- 
federacy. , 

Having  reached  home  in  September,  Mr.  Ticknor  found  his 
time  amply  filled,  especially  by  the  affairs  of  the  Public  Library. 


^.66.]  COMMERCIAL  CRISIS.  405 

The  only  letter  of  any  general  interest  that  has  been  found,  dating 
from  the  first  four  or  five  months  after  his  return,  is  the  fol- 
lowing :  — 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Bart.,  Toronto. 

Boston,  November  18,  1857- 

Dear  Head,  —  The  last  tune  I  saw  you,  I  think  you  were  in  the 
hands  of  a  London  poHce  officer.''*"  Of  course  we  are  all,  in  propor- 
tion, glad  to  find  you  safely  returned  to  Toronto,  and  I  should  have 
told  you  so  some  days  since,  but  I  thought  it  was  better  to  wait  until 
you  were  fairly  settled,  and  had  got  through  your  first  batch  of  busi- 
ness.    This,  I  trust,  for  your  sake  as  well  as  mine,  is  now  the  case. 

We  are  all  well,  —  daughter  that  was  so  ill,  grandchild,  and  all,  — 
and  all  still  living  together  in  Park  Street,  after  the  fashion  of  the 
patriarchs.  But  the  young  folks  will  soon  go  away  to  a  new  home, 
which  they  are  now  fitting  up  with  all  the  eagerness  of  inexperience  ; 
and  we  shall  have  a  heavy  miss  of  them,  and  a  heavier  one  of  the 
baby,  who  is  now  the  plaything  of  the  house.  It  is,  however,  all 
right. 

But  nothing  else  seems  to  be  so  just  now.  I  need  not  tell  you 
what  a  hurricane  we  have  had  in  our  commercial  and  monetary 
affairs.  It  has  blown  somewhat  in  Canada,  I  thinkj  and  even  London 
and  Paris  have  not  been  unconscious  of  it.     But  here  it  has  been 

tremendous A  great  deal  has,  no  doubt,  been  owing  to  a  mad 

panic.  But  there  have  been  deep  causes  at  work  for  years  to  produce 
it.  The  people  of  this  country  have  been  spendthrifts,  to  a  degree 
that,  I  think,  no  people  in  all  its  classes  ever  were  before  ;  and  as  for 
the  great  merchants  and  manufacturers,  the  bank  directors  and  rail- 
road  managers,  they  have  been  gamblers,  —  gamblers  more  adventur- 
ous than  any  at  the  Bourse  in  Paris  or  in  the  Credit  Mobilier.  AVe 
shall,  however,  get  over  it,  and,  I  suppose,  take  nothing  by  our  ex- 
perience. The  country  was  never  more  really  prosperous,  —  never 
richer  in  all  that  goes  to  make  up  national  wealth  than  it  is  now,  — 
and  as  soon  as  this  bourrasque  is  over,  we  shall  go  to  spending,  specu- 
lating, and  gambling,  just  as  if  nothing  had  ever  happened.  One  of 
the  most  curious  things  about  it,  and  perhaps  one  of  those  most  worth 
considering,  is  the  way  in  which  people  accept  it  and  submit  to  it,  as 
if  it  were  the  work  of  an  irresistible  fate.  Debtors  claim,  as  if  it  were 
a  right,  an  extension  of  time  for  paying  their  notes,  and  creditors 

*  See  ante,  p.  398. 


406  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1857. 

everywhere  grant  it  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  seems  as  if  we  had 
become  used  to  such  catastrophes,  and  had  learnt  to  take  them  easy. 
The  very  bank  circulation  seems  to  have  grown  insensible  ;  for  there 
is  hardly  a  perceptible  difference  between  gold  and  inconvertible 
paper.  It  was  never  so  before  under  the  same  circumstances,  and 
ought  not  to  be  so  now.  I  cannot  account  for  it  on  any  good  princi- 
ple, and  do  not  like  it  in  its  moral  asjiects 

I  had  an  excellent  passage  home,  the  one  Mrs.  Ticknor  ought  to 
have  had  ;  for  she  had  a  very  bad  one,  and  was  ill  after  her  arrival. 
But,  as  I  said,  w^e  are  all  weU  now,  uncommonly  well,  and  are  enjoy- 
ing the  season,  which,  for  two  months,  has  been  verj'-  fine,  and  is  still 
very  mild.*    I  wish  you  had  come  this  way,  and  given  us  a  week. 

Yours  faithfuUy, 

Geo.  TiCKis^OR. 


From:  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Toronto,  November  21,  1857. 

My  dear  Ticknor,  —  I  got  your  letter  this  morning,  and  I  was 
very  glad  to  hear  so  good  an  account  of  you  all.  We  have  heard  some 
rumors  of  the  manner  in  which  youi'  monetary  crisis  had  affected 
Mrs.  Ticknor's  family,  and  we  were,  I  need  not  tell  you,  sincerely 
sorry  for  it.  ^ 

You  left  me,  as  you  say,  in  the  custody  of  the  police.  I  escaped, 
on  the  whole,  as  well  as  could  be  expected,  though,  no  doubt,  if  my 
real  deserts  had  been  before  the  court,  I  might  have  been  more  severely 
dealt  with. 

"VVe  had  a  stormy  passage  out  ;  but  I  was  glad  that  we  took  the 
Quebec  route,  for  the  last  three  days  one  is  pretty  sure  to  have  smooth 
water,  which  is  something  gained  on  the  passage.  "We  left  England 
all  green,  and  found  icicles  a  yard  long  on  the  cliffs  of  Belleisle 

Our  banks  have  held  their  ground  pretty  well,  but  some  of  our 
land  speculators  have  suffered,  and  will  continue  to  suffer,  from  the 
pressure.  I  agree  with  you  that  the  equal  value  of  gold  and  incon- 
vertible paper  at  Boston  is  a  strange  phenomenon.  I  suppose,  how- 
ever, it  marks  confidence  in  the  ultimate  ability  of  the  issuers  to  meet 
all  engagements,  and  it  also  seems  to  show  that  there  is  none  of  that 
irrational  fear  which  tends  to  the  hoarding  of  specie  in  less  enlight- 

*  In  the  following  February  he  writes  :  "  We  are  enjoying  a  much  finer  win- 
ter than  any  of  the  three  I  have  spent  in  Italy We  have  had  almost 

unbroken  bright,  cheerful  sunshine  and  a  dehcious  tonic  atmosphere." 


JE.  C6.]  ILLNESS  OF  MR.   PRESCOTT.  407 

ened  communities.  I  can  easily  understand  that  your  suspension  of 
cash  payments  was  welcome  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  So 
far  as  it  had  any  effect,  its  tendency  was  to  check  the  export  of  bullion. 
But  I  conceive  that  the  consequences  will  last  long  after  the  resump- 
tion of  specie  payments,  and  will  be  felt  in  the  pecuniary  relations  of 
New  York  and  Boston.  The  readiness  with  which  such  a  step  can 
be  resorted  to  will  diminish  confidence  in  Europe. 

Nor  do  I  see  how  the  Legislature  in  New  York  is  to  help  the  banks 
by  legalizing  such  a  course.  The  fifth  section  of  the  eighth  article  of 
their  Constitution  is  explicit,  in  depriving  the  Legislature  of  the  power 
to  authorize  a  suspension  of  specie  payments.  (I  do  not  think  that 
in  Massachusetts  you  have  any  such  clause,  but  I  am  not  sure.)  This 
will  be  a  notable  example  of  the  difficulty  caused  by  the  absence  of 
any  living  sovereign  body,  for  the  people  of  the  State  of  New  York 
can  only  speak  when  called  into  life  for  the  purpose.  Until  they 
have  so  spoken,  one  of  two  things  must  be  the  case,  —  either  the  banks 
must  openly  and  professedly  violate  the  law,  or  the  Legislature  must 
deliberately  set  aside  the  Constitution. 

I  cannot  enter  on  the  slavery  question,  for  I  confess  I  do  not  see 
my  way.     If  the  Northern  States  secure  Kansas  as  a  free  State,  it  will 

be  the  first  time  that  their  action  has  been  ultimately  successful 

With  kindest  regards. 

Yours  most  truly, 

Edmund  Head. 


To  Sir  Charles  Ltell. 

Boston,  February  19, 1858. 

My  dear  Ltell,  —  ....  I  began  a  letter  to  you  above  a  fortnight 
ago,  the  fragment  of  which  is  now  before  me,  and  would  have  crossed 
vours  on  the  Atlantic  if  it  had  been  finished  ;  but  Prescott's  illness 
came  the  next  day,  and  drove  everything  else  out  of  my  miml  for  a 
time.  Anna  wrote  yon  about  the  first  attack  and  the  early  relief. 
Since  that  time,  thank  God,  he  has  constantly  gone  on  improving, 

and  is  now  almost  restored He  is,  of  course,  kept  on  a  low 

diet,  and  knows  that  there  must  always  be  a  cloud  between  him  and 
the  future  ;  but,  still,  I  believe  there  is  many  a  year  of  happiness  in 
store  for  him.  His  fomily,  on  both  the  fother's  and  mother's  side, 
have  been  long-lived  ;  and  he  has  a  revenue  of  good  spirits  which  is 
better  than  all  the  inheritances  of  fortune.  His  chief  trouble,  and  it 
is  one  that  he  begins  to  feel  already,  will  be  the  giving  up  his  habits 


408  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  '     [1858. 

of  exact  industry,  getting  out  of  those  iron  grooves  in  which  his  life 

has  so  long  run,  and  becoming  comparatively  an  idle  man 

But  he  must  do  it,  and  he  has  made  up  his  mind  to  it.  Indeed,  he 
has  understood  his  complaint  perfectly  from  the  first  moment,  and 
accepts  all  its  conditions  and  consequences  with  the  most  absolute 
cheerfulness. 

Our  financial  troubles  here,  of  which  you  speak,  have  been  much 
like  yours  in  Europe,  and  have  come  from  the  same  causes.  The 
suffering  has  been  great,  and  will  be  long  felt ;  but  whether  anybody 

will  learn  anything  by  the  bitter  experience  is  very  doul^tful 

Our  banking  system  is  one  cause  of  our  troubles,  but  by  no  means 
the  chief.  The  universal  extravagance,  the  spendthrift  character  of 
the  mass  of  the  people,  goes  deeper  than  all  their  moneyed  institutions. 
This,  I  think,  is  likely  to  be  diminished  for  a  good  while 

Our  politics  are  in  a  state  of  great  confusion.  As  the  elder  Adams  * 
said  to  me,  when  he  was  eighty-nine  years  old,  about  the  politics  of 
the  State  of  New  York  for  seventy  j^ears  pre"\dous,  "they  are  the 
Devil's  incomprehensibles."  The  reason  is  that  the  old  parties  are 
breaking  up,  and  the  new  ones  are  not  yet  sufficiently  formed  and 
organized  to  be  intelligible.  The  great  contest,  as  you  know,  is  about 
Kansas.  Buchanan  has  behaved  as  badly  as  possible  about  it  ;  the 
leaders  of  the  Free  Soil  party  no  better.  Both  have  treated  it  as  a 
game  for  political  power.  It  has  been  just  as  certain  for  nearly  two 
years,  as  it  is  now  admitted  to  be  by  everybody,  that  Kansas  will  be 
a  free  State,  and  yet,  as  each  party  has  believed  that  it  could  profit 
more  by  the  contest  than  its  adversary  could,  the  contest  has  been 
continued.  Either  party  could  have  stopped  it  any  time  during  the 
last  two  years 

Lecturing  is  as  active  as  ever,  and  the  lectures  well  attended. 
Among  others  we  have  now  religious  lectures,  delivered  in  a  large 
church  on  Sunday  evenings  by  clergymen  of  all  the  different  persua- 
sions, except  the  Catholics,  in  answer  to  one  and  the  same  question, 
namely,  "  Why,  from  love  to  God  and  man,  do  I  hold  the  oj^inions  in. 
religion  which  I  do  hold?"  The  attendance,  I  understand,  is  very 
large,  and  the  discussions  are  conducted  in  the  most  tolerant  spirit. 
This  I  regard  as  the  natural  result  of  free  inquiry  ;  violence  and  bit- 
terness, indeed,  for  a  time,  but  at  last  fair  and  faithful  discussion. 
Thirty  years  ago  such  lectures  would  not  have  been  decently  man- 
aged ;  forty  years  ago  I  think  they  would  have  been  interrupted  by 
rude  noises  and  in  other  ways,  so  that  they  could  not  have  been  car- 

*  President  John  Adams. 


JE.  66.]  LETTERS  TO  SIR  E.  HEAD.  409 

ried  on.  Now  they  are  listened  to  like  any  other  grave  discus- 
sions  

Remember  us  all  most  affectionately  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Horner  and 
all  their  house,  and  believe  us  very  affectionately  yours.     I  sign 

for  all. 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  April  24,  1858. 

We  have  taken  a  very  nice  furnished  house,  five  miles  out  of  tow-n, 
and  shall  go  there  next  month,  taking  with  us  the  Dexters  and  the 
grand-daughter.  I  would  never  go  away  from  my  town-house  except 
for  mere  change  ;  so  pure  is  the  air  here,  the  Common  so  bright,  and 
the  house  itself  so  much  better  and  more  comfortable  —  library  and 
all  —  than  anything  I  get  elsewhere.  But  when  I  do  leave  my  city 
appliances,  I  like  to  go  to  a  new  place  every  year,  or  nearly  every  year, 
so  as  to  make  a  real  change,  and  not  go  over  the  old  drives  annuallv. 
You  governors  have  this  changing  life  in  perfection  ;  only  now  and 
then  you  are  sent  to  very  out-of-the-way  j)laces. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  May  20,  1858. 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  much  we  should  be  gratified  if  we  could  ac- 
cept your  invitation,  so  true  a  pleasure  would  it  be  to  us  to  spend  a  few 
days  with  you  at  any  time  and  anywhere.  But  I  suppose  it  is  quite 
out  of  the  question.  What  I  can  have  said  to  you  about  "  moving 
round  "  this  summer,  as  if  I  thought  I  should  be  more  than  commonly 

free,  I  do  not  easily  comprehend The  Public  Library  and  two 

or  three  other  things  keep  me  here.  I  do  not  intend  this  shall  be  the 
case  hereafter.  Next  year,  I  trust,  I  may  execute  a  project  I  have 
had  for  many  years  at  heart,  —  I  mean  that  of  making  a  good  long 
visit  at  Niagara,  where  we  shall  be  so  near  you  that  we  can  run  down 
to  Toronto,  and  spend  a  few  days  with  you,  at  any  time  that  it  will 
be  easiest  and  pleasantest  for  you  to  receive  us.  Only  you  must  not 
go  off  to  be  Governor-General  of  India  or  Minister  of  State  at  home  ; 
for  there  we  shall  never  follow  you. 

I  do  not  wonder  you  are  perplexed  about  J.  Indeed,  I  partly 
foresaw  the  case,  and  I  think  you  did  last  summer  when  we  talked 
about  it.  But  in  this  world  we  must  not  be  like  the  good  old  lady, 
who  asked  at  the  bookseller's  shop  for  the  smallest-sized  Bible  with. 

VOL.  II.  18 


410  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1858. 

the  largest-sized  print.  And  apropos  of  this,  did  you  ever  read 
Mrs.  Barbauld's  "  Essay  on  Inconsistent  Expectations  "  ?  It  is  a  little 
harsli  and  uncomfortable  in  its  tone,  but  there  is  a  cruel  wisdom 

in  it  about  education,  which  often  comes  up  to  plague  me I 

have  always  had  two  fixed  ideas  about  young  men  :  first,  that  they 
should  be  substantially  educated  in  the  country  where  they  are  proba- 
bly to  live  ;  and  second,  that  not  a  small  part  of  the  value  of  a  uni- 
versity or  public-school  education  consists  in  adjusting  a  young  man, 
during  the  most  flexible  period  of  his  life,  to  his  place  among  the  asso- 
ciates who  can  best  help  him  onward.  To  these  two  considerations 
I  should  always  be  willing  to  sacrifice  a  good  deal.  But  the  question 
of  exactly  how  much  must  be  settled  in  each  particular  case,  bal- 
ancing all  advantages  and  disadvantages.  And  this  is  exactly  your 
trouble  now.  I  wish  I  could  help  you,  as  you  suggest,  but  I  cannot. 
He  who  stands  in  the  centre  is  the  only  person  who  can  see  truly  all 
the  relations  of  the  circumference. 

To  Robert  H.  Gardiner,  Esq. 

Boston/  June  25, 1858. 
Dear  Mr.  Gardiner,  —  I  received  with  much  pleasure  your  kind 
letter  of  the  17th,  and  the  copy  of  Buckle,  all  safe  and  in  good  con- 
dition.t  It  is  a  remarkable  book,  as  you  say,  and  shows  an  astonish- 
ing amount  of  knowledge  for  a  man  of  his  years,  and  a  power  of  gen- 
eralization remarkable  at  any  age.  His  views  of  what  is  connected 
with  our  spiritual  nature  are,  no  doubt,  unsound,  and  his  radicalism 
is  always  offensive.  I  have  seldom  read  a  book  with  which  I  have 
so  often  been  angry,  and  yet  I  have  learnt,  I  think,  a  great  deal 
from  it,  and  had  my  mind  waked  up  by  it  upon  many  matters,  for  it 
has  suggested  to  me  a  great  variety  of  points  for  inquiry,  of  which  I 
might  otherwise  never  have  thought 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

In  May,  1858,  Mr.  Ticknor  received  the  following  letter  from 
Baron  Humboldt,  of  which,  according  to  the  request  in  the  post- 
script, lie  immediately  sent  a  translation  to  one  of  the  Boston 
daily  newspapers,  with  an  appropriate  preface.     This  does  not 

*  In  another  letter,  of  nearly  the  same  date,  he  says  :  "  I  shall  be  in  town  a 
great  deal,  and  do  my  work  there  rather  than  in  the  country." 
t  Lent  by  Mr.  Ticknor  to  Mr.  Gardiner. 


^•66.]  LETTER  FROM  HUMBOLDT.  411 

seem  to  preclude  the  insertion  of  the  original  here,  which  will 
be  followed  by  ]\Ir.  Ticknor's  answer,  or  so  much  of  it  as  has 
been  found. 

MoN  CHER  ET  EXCELLENT  AMI,  —  Des  rapports  d'amitie  qui  re- 
montant si  haut  dans  ma  famille,  I'affection  que  men  frere  Guillaume 
de  Humboldt  vous  avait  vouee  lorsque  tres  jeune  vous  habitiez  I'Alle- 
magne,  m'imposent  comme  un  devoir  bien  doux  a  accomplir,  celui 
de  vous  donner  un  signe  de  vie,  c'est-a-dire,  une  marque  renouvellee 
de  mon  attachement,  de  mon  interet  pour  votre  patrie,  un  precis  de 
mes  travaux. 

Mes  forces  physiques  baissent,  mais  avec  lenteur.  Ma  demarche 
est  moins  certaine  de  direction,  a  cause  d'mie  faiblesse  (d'un  reluche- 
ment)  dans  les  ligaments  des  genoux,  mais  je  peux  rester  debout,  sans 
etre  fatigue,  pendant  une  heure.  Je  continue  a  travailler  le  plus 
j^endant  la  nuit,  etant  impitoyablement  tourmente  par  ma  corre- 
spondence, qui  s'etend  d'autant  plus  que  Ton  devient  un  objet  de 
curiosite  publique.  Ce  que  Ton  appelle  la  celebrite  litteraire  est  sur- 
tout  I'efFet  d'une  longue  patience  de  vivre.  Ce  genre  d'illustration 
augmente  a  mesure  que  I'imbecilite  devient  plus  manifeste.  Je  ne 
suis  jamais  malade,  mais  souvent  souffrant,  comme  on  doit  I'etre  a 
I'age  de  89  ans. 

N'ayant  ete  que  deux  personnes  dans  I'expedition  Americaine  (le 
malheureux  Carlos  Montufar,^  his  du  Marquis  de  Selvalegra  de 
Quito,  est  tombe  victime  de  son  amour  pour  la  liberte  de  sa  patrie)  il 
est  assez  remarquable  que,  tons  deux,  nous  soyons  arrives  a  un  age  si 
avance.  Bonpland,  encore  tres  occupe  de  travaux  scientifiques,  se 
bergant  meme  de  I'espoir  de  visiter  encore  une  fois  I'Europe,  et  de 
rapporter,  lui-meme,  ses  riches  et  belles  collections  botaniques  et  geo- 
logiques  a  Paris,  a  85  ans,  et  jouit  de  j)lus  de  forces  que  moi. 

Je  viens  de  publier  en  Allemagne  le  4eme  volume  du  Cosmos.  On 
imprime  en  ce  moment  le  5eme  volume,  qui  termine  I'ouvrage  si  im- 
prudemment  commence,  et  si  favorablement  accueilh  par  le  puljlic. 
Le  General  Sabine  m'ecrit  que  la  traduction  Anglaise  est  terminee,  et 
va  paraitre  incessamment.  La  meme  nouvelle  m'est  venue  de  France, 
de  la  part  de  M.  Galuzzi,  qui  a  passe  tout  I'hiver  dans  le  midi,  a 
Cannes. 

*  Carlos  de  Montvifar  was  a  young  man  passionately  attached  to  science,  and 
accompanied  Humboldt  and  Bonpland  from  Quito,  -where  they  arrived  in  Janu- 
ary, 1802,  through  all  their  travels  in  Peru  and  ]\Iexico,  till  their  embarkation 
at  Vera  Cruz,  in  the  spring  of  1804.  (Note  by  IMr.  Ticknor  to  the  translation 
published  June  9,  1858.) 


412  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1858. 

Le  grand  et  bel  ouvrage  d'Agassiz  (les  deux  volumes)  ne  m'est 
arrive  que  depuis  quelques  jours.  II  produira  uii  grand  effet,  par  la 
grandeur  des  vues  generales,  et  I'extreme  sagacite  dans  les  observations 
speciales  embryologiques.  Je  n'ai  jamais  cru  que  cet  homme  illustre, 
qui  est  en  meme  temps  un  homme  de  coeur,  une  belle  ame,  accepterait 
les  offres  que  noblement  on  lui  a  faites  a  Paris.  Je  savais  que  la  re- 
connaissance le  retiendrait  dans  une  nouvelle  patrie  ou  il  trouve  un  si 
immense  terrain  a  exploiter,  et  de  grands  moyens  de  secours.  Puisse- 
t-il,  a  cote  de  tant  de  travaux  anatomiques  et  physiologiques,  dans  les 
organismes  inferieurs,  vouloir  nous  donner  aussi  Ficbthyologie  speci- 
fique  de  ces  bassins  nombreux  dans  le  far  West,  a  commencer  par  le 
Saint  Empire  des  Mormons. 

Les  sciences  viennent  de  faire  ici  une  perte  immense,  par  la  mort  si 
inattendue  du  plus  grand  anatomiste  de  notre  siecle,  le  Professeur 
Jean  Miiller."^  C'est  une  perte  toute  aussi  immense  pour  les  sciences, 
que  I'a  ete  pour  les  arts  la  mort  de  I'immortel  sculpteur  Rauch.t 
L'universalite  deseconnaissances  zoologiques  dans  les  classes  inferieures 
de  I'organization,  rapprochait  Jean  Miiller  de  Cuvier,  ayant  une  gi'ande 
preeminence  dans  la  finesse  du  travail  anatomique  et  physiologique. 
II  a  execute  des  grands  et  penibles  voyages,  a  ses  frais,  sur  les  cotes  de 
la  Mediterrance,  et  dans  les  Mers  du  Nord.  II  n'y  a  que  deux  ans  a 
peine  qu'il  a  manque  perir  dans  un  naufrage  sur  le  littoral  de  la 
Norvege.  II  s'est  soutenu  en  nageant  pendant  plus  d'une  demie  heure, 
et  se  croyait  deja  entierement  perdu,  lorsque  merveilleusement  il  fut 
retire  de  I'eau.  Je  perds  en  lui  un  ami  qui  m'etait  bien  cher.  C'etait 
un  homme  d'un  grand  talent,  et  d'un  beau  caractere  a  la  fois.  On 
admirait  et  I'elevation  et  I'independence  de  .sentiments.  II  a  fait 
d'enormes  sacrifices  pour  se  former  une  bibliotheque  choisie  non  seule- 
ment  d'anatomie,  de  physiologic  et  de  zoologie,  mais  s'etendant  sur 
toutes  les  sciences  physiques.  Elle  se  compose  de  plus  de  trois  milles 
volumes,  bien  relies,  et  d'autant  de  volumes  renfermant  des  disserta- 
tions si  difhciles  a  reunir.  M.  Muller  depensait  par  an  pres  de  800 
ecus  (thaler)  pour  la  reliure  seule.  II  serait  triste  de  voir  dispersee, 
parcellee,  une  collection  faite  avec  tant  de  soin.     Comme  en  Europe 

*  Johann  Miiller  had  recently  died,  only  fifty-seven  years  old. 

t  Ranch,  who  died  in  1857,  was  above  eighty,  and  seemed,  until  shortly  he- 
fore  his  death,  destined  to  many  years  of  health.  When  Humboldt  kept  his 
eighty-seventh  birthday,  the  14th  September,  1856,  with  his  niece,  the  admi- 
rable Mad,  de  Biilow,  at  Tegel,  the  favorite  residence  of  her  father,  and  of  his 
brother  William,  he  desired  to  have  only  one  other  person  of  the  party,  and 
that  was  Ranch,  undoubtedly  then  the  first  of  living  sculptors.  (Note  by  Mr. 
Ticknor.) 


M.ee.]  "COSMOS."  413 

on  craint  les  doubles,  je  dois  presqiie  redoiiter  que  cette  belle  collection 
traverse  le  grand  fleuve  atlantique.  J'ai  presque  Fair  d'exciter  votre 
appetit  en  me  presentant  devant  vous  coinnie  citoyen  du  nionde,  tandis 
que  la  Kirclieiizeitung  de  Vienne  me  nomme,  en  lettres  majuscules,  un 
naturaliste  assassin  des  ames,  Seelenmorder. 

Agrcez,  je  vous  prie,  moncher  et  respectable  ami,  le  renouvellement 
de  la  haute  et  afFectueuse  consideration  que  j'ai  vouee  depuis  tant 
d'annees  a  votre  talent  et  a  votre  caractere. 

A.  V.  Humboldt. 
A  Berlin,  ce  9  Mai,  1858. 

Da  so  viele  mir  wohlwollende  Menschen,  farbige  und  weisse,  in  den 
Vereinigten  Staaten,  an  mir  Antheil  nehmen,  so  ware  es  mir  angenelim, 
tbeurer  Freund,  wenn  dieser  Brief  von  Ihnen  ins  Engliscbe  iil)ertra- 
gen  (ohne  Weglassen  dessen  was  sich  auf  unsere  gegenseitige  P'reund- 
scbaft  bezieht)  gedruckt  werden  konnte.  Wenn  Sie  es  fiir  nothwendig 
halten,  konnten  Sie  zusetzen,  ich  hiitte  die  Bekanntmaehung  selbst 
erbeten,  well  ich  so  viele  an  mich  gerichtete  Briefe  unbeantwortet 
gelassen."* 

*  Translation  of  the  above  :  — 

My  dear  and  excellent  Friend,  —  Bonds  of  friendship  which  have  their 
origin  so  far  back  in  my  family,  and  the  affection  felt  for  you  by  my  brother, 
William  von  Humboldt,  when  you  lived  in  Germany  as  a  young  man,  seem  to 
impose  on  me  the  very  pleasant  duty  of  giving  you  some  sign  of  life,  —  that  is 
to  say,  a  renewed  proof  of  my  attachment  to  you,  and  my  interest  in  your  coun- 
try, and  a  brief  account  of  my  labors. 

My  physical  strength  declines,  but  it  declines  slowly.  My  steps  are  more 
uncertain  in  their  direction,  owing  to  a  feebleness  (a  relaxing)  of  the  ligaments 
of  the  knees  ;  but  I  can  remain  standing  for  an  hour  without  being  fatigued. 
I  continue  to  work  chiefly  at  night,  being  unrelentingly  persecuted  by  my  cor- 
responilence,  which  increases  the  more  as  one  becomes  an  ol\ject  of  public 
curiosity.  What  is  called  literary  celebrity  is  especially  the  result  of  a  long 
endurance  of  life.  This  kind  of  eminence  increases,  therefore,  in  proportion  as 
imbecility  becomes  more  manifest.  I  am  never  really  ill,  but  often  incom- 
moded, as  is  to  be  expected  at  the  age  of  eighty-nine. 

Since  we  were  only  two  persons  in  the  American  Expedition  (the  \;nfortunate 
Carlos  !Montufar,  son  of  the  Marquis  de  Selvalegra,  of  Quito,  fell  a  victim  to 
his  love  for  the  liberty  of  his  country),  it  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  we 
should  both  have  reached  so  advanced  an  age.  Bonpland,  still  much  occupied 
with  scientific  labors,  even  cherishing  the  hope  of  visiting  Europe  again,  and  of 
bringing  in  person  back  to  Paris  his  rich  and  beautiful  collections  in  botany 
and  geology,  is  eiglity-five  years  old,  and  enjoys  greater  strength  tlian  I  do. 

I  have  just  published  in  Germany  the  fourth  volume  of  "  Cosmos,"  and  they 
are  now  printing  the  fifth  vohime,  which  completes  that  work,  so  imprudently 
begun  and  so  favorably  received  by  the  public.    General  Sabine  writes  me  that 


414  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1858. 


To  Baron  Alexander  von  Humboldt. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  July  8,  1858. 

My  dear  and  venerated  Friend,  —  I  was  miicli  surprised  to  re- 
ceive your  letter  of  May  9.  I  was  still  more  gi-atified.  Indeed,  I 
cannot  tell  yon  how  much  I  was  gratified  by  it.  It  contained  such 
excellent  news  of  yourself  ;  it  was  so  flattering  to  me  that  you  should 
write  to  me  at  all. 

You  are  quite  right  in  supposing  that  Agassiz  will  remain  in  the 
United  States.  In  fact,  he  has  never  doubted.  He  is  happily  married. 
His  social  position  is  as  agreeable  as  we  can  make  it.  His  pecuniary 
resources  are  quite  sufficient  for  his  wants.  The  field  for  his  peculiar 
labors  is  new  and  wide,  and  he  is  not  only  able,  from  his  fine  physical 
nature,  to  go  over  a  large  part  of  it  himself,  but  he  is  forming  a  school 
■which  will  carry  on  what  he  may  leave  unfinished.  I  think,  there- 
fore, that  by  remaining  here,  he  not  only  does  well  for  himself,  but 
for  the  cause  of  science,  to  which  he  so  earnestly  and  eff'ectively  de- 
votes his  life.  I  gave  him  at  once  so  much  of  your  letter  to  me  as 
related  to  him  personally.  He  was  very  much  gratified  with  it,  and 
immediately  sent  to  me  for  you,  with  his  most  ample  acknowledg- 

the  English  translation  is  finished  and  will  appear  immediately.  The  same 
news  comes  to  me  from  France,  from  M.  Gahizzi,  who  has  been  passing  the 
v/inter  in  the  south,  at  Cannes. 

The  great  and  beautiful  work  of  Agassiz  (the  first  two  volumes)  reached  me 
only  a  few  days  since.  It  will  produce  a  great  effect  by  the  breadth  of  its  gen- 
eral vieAvs,  and  by  the  extreme  sagacity  of  its  special  embryological  observa- 
tions. I  never  believed  that  this  illustrious  man,  who  is  no  less  a  man  of  a 
constant  and  beautiful  nature,  would  accept  the  offers  nobly  made  him  in  Paris. 
I  was  sure  that  gratitude  would  bind  him  to  a  new  country,  where  he  finds  a 
field  so  immense  for  his  researches  and  great  means  of  assistance.  I  hope  he 
may  be  inclined,  together  with  his  great  anatomical  and  physiological  labors 
among  the  inferior  organisms,  to  give  us  also  the  specific  ichthyology  of  the 
numerous  basins  of  the  "far  West,"  beginning  with  the  Holy  Empire  of  the 
IVIormons. 

Science  has  lately  met  with  an  immense  loss  here  by  the  unexpected  death 
of  the  greatest  anatomist  of  our  century,  Prof.  Johann  Miiller.  This  loss  is 
as  great  for  science  as  was  for  art  the  death  of  the  immortal  sculptor.  Ranch. 
Tlie  universality  of  his  zoological  knowledge  in  the  inferior  organizations  placed 
Johann  Miiller  near  Cuvier,  having  a  great  pre-eminence  in  the  delicacy  of  his 
anatomical  and  physiological  work.  He  made  long  and  painful  voyages,  at  his 
own  expense,  on  tlie  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  and  in  the  Northern  Seas.  It 
is  scarcely  two  years  since  he  came  near  perishing  by  shipwreck  on  the  coast 
of  Norway.  He  sustained  himself  by  swimming  for  more  than  half  an  hour, 
and  considered  himself  quite  lost,  when  he  was  wonderfully  rescued.     I  lose  in 


iE.  66.]  HUMBOLDT  AND  AGASSTZ.  415 

nients  for  your  kindness,  three  pamphlets  on  the  subject  of  the  fishes 
to  be  found  in  the  basins  of  our  "  Far  West."  This  subject,  to  which 
you  desired  his  attention  to  be  called,  is  a  very  important  part  of  the 
ichthyology  of  all  North  America,  to  which  he  has  devoted  himself 
ever  since  he  has  been  among  us,  and  has  made  a  collection  which  is 
already  become  of  great  value,  and  to  which  he  is  constantly  making 
large  additions.  The  three  pamphlets  in  question  I  forwarded  to  you 
immediately,  sending  them  through  Mr.  Cass,  our  Secretary  of  State, 
and  the  diplomatic  channel  ;  so  that  if  you  have  not  already  received 
them  from  our  Minister  in  Berlin,  he  will  no  doubt  transmit  them  to 
you  very  soon  after  this  letter  reaches  you. 

I  enclose  you  a  copy  of  the  translation  of  your  letter  to  me.  I 
caused  it  to  be  printed  first  in  the  "  Boston  Comber "  of  June  9,  and 
from  that  journal  it  has  been  copied  all  over  the  country,  into  all  sorts 
of  newspapers.  I  think  that  not  less  than  half  a  million  of  such  cop- 
ies of  it  have  thus  been  distributed  ;  so  universal  is  the  interest  felt  in 
your  person  and  fame  throughout  the  United  States. 

Everywhere  it  has  produced  the  same  eftect ;  astonishment  and 
gratitude  for  your  continued  health  and  strength,  and  for  your  unim- 

him  a  friend  who  was  very  dear  to  me.  He  was  a  man  of  great  talent,  and  at 
the  same  time  of  a  noble  character.  He  was  admirable  for  the  elevation  and 
independence  of  his  opinions.  By  making  enormous  sacrifices  he  was  able  to 
form  a  choice  library,  not  only  of  anatomy,  physiology,  and  zoology,  but  one 
that  extended  over  all  the  physical  sciences.  It  consists  of  more  than  three 
thousand  volumes,  well  bound,  and  of  as  many  more  volumes  containing  dis- 
sertations, so  difficult  to  collect.  Mr.  Miiller  spent  nearly  eight  hundred  tha- 
lers  a  year  [six  hundred  dollars]  for  binding  alone.  It  woiild  be  sad  to  see  a 
collection  dispersed  and  broken  up  which  was  made  with  so  much  care.  Since 
duplicates  are  dreaded  in  Europe,  I  cannot  help  fearing  lest  this  fine  collection 
should  cross  the  great  Atlantic  river.  I  have  almost  the  air  of  exciting  your 
appetite  when  I  thus  present  myself  before  you  as  a  citizen  of  the  world,  while 
the  "  Church  Journal "  of  Vienna  calls  me,  in  capital  letters,  a  naturalist  assas- 
sin of  soxxls,  SeelcnmiJrder. 

Accept,  I  beg  you,  my  dear  and  respected  friend,  the  renewal  of  the  high  and 
afi"ectionate  consideration  which,  for  so  many  years,  I  have  given  to  your  talents 

and  to  your  character. 

A.  V,  Humboldt. 
Berlin,  9  May,  1S5S. 

Since  so  many  benevolent  persons,  colored  as  well  as  white,  in  the  United 
States,  take  an  interest  in  me,  it  would  be  agreeable  to  me,  my  dear  friend,  if 
this  letter,  translated  into  English  by  you,  could  be  printed,  without  omitting 
•what  relates  to  our  mutual  friendship.  If  you  think  it  necessary  you  can  add 
that  I  have  myself  begged  of  you  this  publication,  because  I  leave  unanswered 
so  many  letters  that  are  addressed  to  me. 


416  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1858. 

paired  intellectual  resources  and  supremacy.  In  America  we  thank 
God  for  all  these  things,  and  count  them  among  the  blessings  and 
honors  of  the  age  in  which  we  live. 

I  suppose  you  hear  much  about  the  United  States  and  its  public 
policy  that  is  disagreeable.  Indeed,  I  know  you  do.  But  I  pray  you 
to  believe  as  little  of  it  as  you  can.  I  have  neveir  belonged  to  the 
party  that  brought  Mr.  Buchanan  into  power,  and  never  expect  to 
sustain  its  measures  on  any  national  subject.  Still,  I  do  not  impute 
to  Mr.  Buchanan  all  the  political  extravagances  that  are  sometimes 
charged  on  him  by  my  more  ardent  friends.  That  he  desires  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery  I  much  doubt.  That  he  cannot  succeed  in  extend- 
ing it,  if  he  desire  so  to  do,  I  feel  sure.  Be  persuaded,  I  pray  you, 
that  Kansas  will  be  a  free  State.  I  felt  certain  of  this  when  I  had  the 
happiness  of  seeing  you  in  1856,  and  I  have  never  doubted  it  for  a 
moment  since.  It  may  be  a  year  or  two  before  this  result  can  be  ac- 
complished. But  it  is,  in  my  humble  judgment,  as  certain  as  anything 
future  can  be.  Nor  will  one  square  mile  belonging  noio  to  the  terri- 
tory of  the  United  States  be  cursed  with  slavery,  which  is  not  at  this 
present  moment  cursed  with  it.  Of  course  I  do  not  speak  of  Cuba  or 
Mexico.  I  only  pray  that  they  may  never  be  added  to  our  Confed- 
eracy.    Nor  will  they,  except  with  the  consent  of  Europe. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  June  21,  1858. 
I  hope  the  second  edition  of  "  Shall  and  Will "  *  may  come  soon, 
and  that  there  will  be  plenty  of  quotations  from  Shakespeare  in  it. 
There  ought  to  be,  after  the  pains  you  took.  The  Bible,  too,  —  King 
James's,  —  will  furnish  the  best  of  illustrations.  I  am  not  certain 
but  that  it  is  the  constant  use  of  this  book  that  has  kept  us  so  very 
exact  about  "Shall  and  Will,"  from  the  Puritan  times  down.  At 
any  rate,  we  are  all  right  in  New  England.  I  never  knew  a  person 
among  us  —  who  was  born  here,  or  who  was  bred  in  our  schools  — 
to  make  a  mistake  in  the  use  of  these  two  idiomatic  auxiliaries.  In- 
deed, I  do  not  think  I  hear  one  once  a  year,  and  it  is  so  offensive  to 
me,  that  I  am  sure  a  slight  deviation  would  not  escape  my  notice. 

Boston,  September  14,  1858. 
Please  thank  kind  Lady  Head  for  transcribing  the  version  of  the 
last  elegy  of  Propertius.t    It  is  not  very  close,  yet  lemsLvksibly  phrased, 

*  An  admirahle  treatise  "by  Sir  E.  Head, 
t  Translation  by  Sir  E.  Head. 


M.  66.]  THOMAS  DOWSE.  417 

—  if  I  may  use  such  a  word,  —  so  as  to  preserve  the  air  and  toue  of 
the  original.  But  I  do  not  know  how  it  is  that  all  the  expressions  of 
feeling  about  death  by  the  ancients  —  even  this  one,  which  is  per- 
haps the  best  except  the  Alcestis  —  are  so  unsatisfactory.  They 
seem  to  come  out  of  dismal  hollows  in  the  earth,  and  to  be  without 
even  that  warmth  of  merely  human  feeling,  which  they  might  surely 
have  without  the  confident  belief  of  immortality  that  is  granted 
to  us.  Thus,  for  instance,  to  say  nothing  of  his  other  odes  of  the 
same  sort,  the  Ode  of  Horace  to  Posthumiis,  and  especially  the  phrase 
jplacens  uxor,  has  always  seemed  to  me  ineffably  mean.  I  dare  say  I 
may  be  wrong,  but  I  can't  help  it. 

Lord  Napier  spent  seven  or  eight  weeks  at  Nahant,  and,  I  think, 
liked  it  very  well.  At  any  rate,  he  was  very  well  liked  by  the  peo- 
ple who  saw  him  oftenest.     I  met  him  only  two  or  three  times,  for 

the  same  reason  that  I  saw  so  little  of  the  R s.     They  were  all  out 

of  my  beat  by  twenty  miles.  I  suppose  he  represents  the  opinion  of 
England  when  he  shows  less  disposition  than  has  been  usual  with 
your  ministers,  to  fall  in  with  our  Northern  notions  about  slavery, 
and  to  insist  that  Cuba  shall  not  be  annexed  to  the  United  States. 
Probably  it  would  do  no  harm  to  England  to  have  us  possess  all  the 
West  Indies  and  all  South  America  ;  but  I  do  not  conceive  it  to  be 
for  our  interest  to  have  more  territory.  North  or  South.  It  is  now 
nearly  impossible  to  make,  at  Washington,  laws  which  are  absolutely 
necessary  for  one  part  of  the  country,  and  yet  which  can  be  endured 
or  executed  in  another  part  ;  and  the  larger  we  grow  the  more  formi- 
dable this  difficulty  will  become. 

The  following  note  to  Mr.  Everett  derives  its  interest  from  the 
anecdote  with  which  it  concludes,  of  an  admirable  old  man,  ]\Ir. 
Thomas  Dowse,  who,  beginning  life  as  a  journeyman  leather- 
dresser,  and  continuing  always  in  that  craft,  though  becoming  a 
wealthy  master,  early  devoted  every  dollar  he  could  save  to  the 
purchase  of  good  English  books.  Having  lived  a  bachelor  to 
an  advanced  age,  he  left  to  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society 
a  valuable  library  of  about  five  thousand  handsomely  bound  vol- 
umes. The  simplicity  and  upright  intelligence  of  Mr.  Dowse 
had  always  attracted  Mr.  Ticknor,  and  he  often  quoted  the  au- 
tobiographical utterance  which  he  records  at  the  end  of  this 
note. 

18*  A  A 


418  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1859. 

To  Hon.  E.  Everett. 

Park  Street,  December  10,  1858. 
My  dear  Everett,  —  ....  If  I  had  known  that  you  intended 
to  use  Mr.  Dowse's  account  of  his  youth  to  me  in  your  most  agreeable 
and  interesting  lecture  last  night,*  I  would  have  given  it  to  you  in 
writing.  One  or  two  of  the  items  of  his  economies  I  cannot  remem- 
ber ;  but  for  the  others  I  will  give  you,  on  the  next  leaf,  what  I  be- 
lieve are  the  i]}sissima  verba  of  the  old  man,  as  he  stood  just  by  where 
I  am  now  writing  and  leaned  on  the  table.  One  item  I  have  recalled 
since  I  repeated  them  to  you,  and  if  I  could  remember  the  others,  the 
accumulation  would  be  a  little  humorous  and  very  striking.  "  But 
old,  old,  Master  —  "  not  Shallow,  though  Falstaff  has  it  so. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

[Mr.  Dowse's  account  of  his  own  youth.] 
"  Mr.  Ticknor,  when  I  was  twenty-eight  years  old  I  had  never  been 
anything  better  than  a  journeyman  leather-dresser  ;  I  had  never  had 
more  than  twenty-five  dollars  a  month  ;  I  had  never  paid  five  dollars 
to  be  carried  from  one  place  to  another  ;  I  had  never  owned  a  pair  of 
boots  ;  I  had  never  paid  a  penny  to  go  to  the  play  or  to  see  a  sight, 
but  I  owned  above  six  hundred  volumes  of  good  books,  well  bound." 

To  Hon.  Edward  Twisleton. 

Boston,  January  18,  1859. 
My  dear  Twisleton,  —  I  thank  you  for  the  correction  you  have 
taken  the  pains  to  send  me  of  an  error  in  my  "  History  of  Spanish 
Literature,"  which  I  immediately  entered  in  the  margin  of  the  copv 
from  which  I  intend  speedily  to  reprint  it.  I  only  Avish  my  other 
friends  would  be  equally  observant  and  kind.  Von  Eaumer  sent  me 
one  correction  much  like  yours, — telling  me  that  "  Ferdinand,"  whom 
—  in  note  10  to  Chapter  XI.  of  the  First  Part  —  I  had  called  "father 
of  John  I."  of  Portugal,  was,  in  fact,  his  half -hr other.  But  this  is  all, 
and  I  mention  it  because  it  is  so,  as  well  as  from  its  odd  similarity  to 
the  one  you  have  suggested.  Even  in  the  notes  to  the  German  and 
Spanish  translations  few  mistakes  have  been  pointed  out.  Now  all  this 
would  be  very  consoling,  —  even  very  gratifying,  —  if  it  were  not  for 
one  circumstance,  viz.  that  I  have  found  out  so  many  mistakes  myself, 

*  When  Mr.  Everett  had  delivered  a  eulogy  on  Mr.  Dowse,  before  the  Massa- 
chusetts Historical  Society. 


^.67.]  LETTER  TO  MR.   TWISLETON.  410 

that  I  have  little  confidence  in  my  readers  and  reviewers,  and  am 
really  anxious  about  the  number  that  may  still  remain  after  I  have 
done  my  best. 

Of  family  news,  which  are  the  most  important  and  interesting  to 
dear  Ellen  —  and,  therefore,  to  you  —  that  I  can  send  you,  are  they 
not  written  in  the  weekly  chronicle  she  receives,  from  her  old  home, 
by  every  packet-ship  ?  The  new  engagement  and  the  new  grandchild 
are  old  stories  to  you  already,  and  I  hate  repetitions,  vain  repetitions. 
I  will  only,  therefore,  sum  up  all,  by  saying  that  we  are  all  well,  and 
that,  notwithstanding  the  changes  and  trials  that  have  occurred  during 
the  last  fifteen  months,"^  the  average  of  content  and  happiness  in  the 
family  is,  I  think,  as  great  as  it  ever  was. 

As  to  the  country,  we  go  on  much  after  the  fashion  you  understand 

so  well  from  autopsy When  we  talked  about  our  affairs  in 

1856  -  57,  I  easily  foresaw  that  Buchanan  would  be  chosen  ;  that  this 
would  lead  to  no  trouble  with  the  governments  of  Europe,  that  Walker 
would  fail  as  a  Jlihustero,  and  that  nothing  could  prevent  Kansas  from 

being  a  free  State.     But  I  cannot  foresee  now,  as  I  could  then 

Equally  uncertain  is  what  is  more  immediate,  —  the  result  of  the  pres- 
ent important  discussions  in  Congress  about  the  construction  of  a  rail- 
road from  the  Mississippi  ;  though  it  is  not  doubtful,  I  fear,  whenever 
it  is  constructed,  that  it  will  be  made  a  stupendous  job,  involving  great 

corruption,  in  Congress  and  out  of  it And  then,  finally,  as  to 

the  other  great  question,  nobody,  I  think,  knows  what  will  be  done 
about  Utah  ;  though  I  have  no  doubt  Mormonism  will  perish  of  its 
own  wickedness  and  corruption,  and  would,  in  fact,  have  perished 
lonsr  aao  but  for  the  large  recruits  it  has  received  from  the  North  of 
Europe.  Now,  from  all  these  negative  and  uncertain  quantities  if 
you  can  extract  anything  positive,  I  wish  you  joy  of  your  ingenuity. 
I  cannot. 

Your  friends  here,  I  think,  are  all  well  and  doing  well.  Prescott 
told  me  yesterday  that  he  had  received  letters  from  you  and  Mr. 
Adderley.  I  have  seen  him  lately  almost  every  day.  He  is  looking 
as  well  as  ever,  and  his  constitution  has  accommodated  itself,  with 
wonderful  alacrity,  to  the  vegetable  diet  prescribed  for*  him  eleven 
months  ago.  But  he  does  not  yet  feel  himself  equal  to  severe  work, 
and  has  not  undertaken  any.     In  this  I  think  he  is  wise.f 

*  The  financial  troubles  of  1857  had  impaired  the  fortunes  of  some  of  the 
relatives  of  Mrs.  Ticknor  and  Mrs.  Twisleton. 

t  Mr.  Prescott  died  nine  days  after  this  was  written.  The  whole  of  this 
subject  is  reserved  for  a  later  chapter. 


420  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1859. 


Savage,  who  is  now,  I  think,  seventy- five  years  old,  is  uncommonly 
vivacious  and  active.     He  is  now  getting  proof-sheets  of  the  first  out 

of  four  volumes  of  his  book  of  vain  genealogies It  may  be 

hoped  he  will  live  to  carry  it  through  the  press  ;  and  perhaps  we 
ought  to  hope  that  he  will  not  long  survive  its  completion.  He  would 
be  unhappy  without  the  work  into  which  he  has  put  so  large  a  part 
of  his  life. 

Hillard  is  very  well,  and  very  active These  are  the  three 

people  we  see  most  constantly  ;  oftener  than  we  see  anybody  out  of 

the  family Tell  dear  Ellen  that  I  love  her  just  as  much  as  I 

did  when  I  was  at  Rutland  Gate  and  Malvern,  and  hope  still  that  she 
will  come  to  the  United  States  once  more  before  I  die.  I  talked 
much  about  her  lately  with  Sam  Eliot,  who,  with  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, spent  a  week  with  us  at  New  Year,  and  again,  only  yesterday, 
with  Cogswell,  who,  after  spending  three  or  four  days  with  us,  went 
to  New  York  this  morning. 

The  two  Annas  and  Lizzie  send  love.     So  do  I.     So  do  Prescott 

and  Hillard,  to  whom  I  gave  your  messages,  and  so  does  Savage,  to 

whom  you  sent  none. 

Always  yours, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


To  Sir  Walter  Calverly  Trevelyan. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  .June  28,  1859. 

My  dear  Sir  Walter,  — .  .  .  .  Hillard*   can   tell  you  all  you 

will  want  to  know  about  this  country On  the  Maine  Liquor 

Law,  which  interests  you  so  much,  and  which,  if  it  were  possible  to 
execute  it  honestly,  would  interest  me  equally,  he  knows  at  least  as 
much  as  I  do.  But  I  rather  think  his  opinion  is  substantially  like 
mine  ;  namely,  that  it  has  not  advanced  the  cause  of  temperance 
among  us,  and  that  it  has  tended  much  to  bring  all  laws  into  disre- 
pute which  are  not  in  themselves  popular It  looks  as  if  legis- 
lation upon  the  subject  were  effete.  But  we  are  a  people  fond  of  ex- 
periments ;  and,  perhaps,  in  time  we  shall  hit  upon  something  that 
will  do  good.     I  am  sure  I  hope  we  shall. 

Just  now  I  am  much  more  troubled  about  the  European  war  than 
about  our  liquor  law,  which  I  do  not  hear  mentioned  once  a  month. 
But,  if  you  will  keep  out  of  it  in  England,  I  will  be  content.     At  one 

*  Then  visiting  England,  and  introduced  to  Sir  Walter  Trevelyan  by  Mr. 
Ticknor. 


M.  67.]  WAR   IN  ITALY.  421 

time  I  trusted,  or  rather  I  hoped,  that  the  financial  question  would 
override  all  the  others,  and  that  money  would  not  be  found  to  carry 
on  the  contest.  But  armed  men  seem  to  spring  from  the  earth,  as 
they  did  in  the  times  of  Cadmus  and  Jason,  merely  because  wicked- 
ness has  been  sown  broadcast ;  and  the  harvest  of  such  seed  can  only 
be  desolation  and  misery.  Of  course,  our  sympathies  are  all  with  the 
Italians.  The  difficulty  is  to  see  how  they  are  to  get  any  benefit  from 
the  struggle The  ultimate  horror  is  that,  with  every  revolu- 
tion and  war,  the  governments  necessarily  become  more  military,  — 
the  number  of  the  standing  armies  is  increased  ;  and  this,  if  the  his- 
tory of  the  race  for  three  thousand  years  means  anything,  is  the  death 

of  civilization 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


422  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1859. 


CHAPTEE    XXI. 

Letters,  1859-61,  to  Sir  C.  Lyell,  Hon.  E.  Everett,  Sir  E.  Head, 

C.  S.  Daveis. 

To  Sir  Charles  Lyell. 

Boston,  May  17,  1859. 

My  dear  Lyell,  —  By  the  time  this  letter  reaches  London,  I  trust 
that  you  will  be  safely  back  in  Harley  Street,  from  the  land  of  dikes 
and  canals,  —  a  strange  country,  which  I  visited  once,  and  seemed  to 
lead  such  a  sort  of  amphibious  existence,  that  I  have  never  cared  to 
go  there  again.  But  it  was  in  the  month  of  July,  and  the  waters 
pumped  up  by  the  windmills  did  not  give  out  Sabean  odors. 

We  feel  very  uncomfortable  about  the  news  we  get  from  your  side 

of  the  Atlantic But  I  had  rather  talk  about  the  progress  of 

civilization  than  its  decay  and  death,  which  are,  I  conceive,  the  natu- 
ral results  of  the  prevalence  of  military  governments.     So  I  will  tell 

you  about  Agassiz  and  his  affairs The  establishment  *  is  a  grand 

one,  and  I  take  an  interest  in  it,  not  from  any  knowledge  about  the 
subject,  or  any  personal  regard  for  it,  but  because  I  think  such  an  in- 
stitution will  tend,  more  than  anything  else,  at  the  present  time,  to 
lay  the  foundation  for  a  real  university  among  us,  where  all  the  great 
divisions  of  human  knowledge  shall  be  duly  represented  and  taught. 
I  had  a  vision  of  such  an  establishment  forty  years  ago,  when  I  came 
fresh  from  a  two-years'  residence  at  Gottingen  ;  but  that  was  too  soon. 
Nobody  listened  to  me.  Now,  however,  when  we  have  the  best  law 
school  in  the  country,  one  of  the  best  observatories  in  the  world,  a 
good  medical  school,  and  a  good  botanical  garden,  I  think  the  Law- 
rence Scientific  School,  wdth  the  Zoological  and  Paleontological  Mu- 
seum, may  push  through  a  true  university,  and  bring  up  the  Greek, 
Latin,  mathematics,  history,  philosophy,  etc.,  to  their  projDer  level. 
At  least  I  hope  so,  and  mean  to  work  for  it 

We  are  looking  for  your  paper  on  Etna,  and  I  hope  to  be  able  to 
understand  it,  but  do  not  feel  sure.      Of  Mansell's  lectures  I  have 

*  The  Miiseum  of  Comparative  Zoology  at  Cambridge. 


M.  67.]  MUSEUM  OF  ZOOLOGY.  423 

better  hopes.     They  are  published  here.     We  are  all  well,  and  all 

send  love  to  dear  Lady  Lyell 

Yours  always, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

• 

In  1867  Mr.  Ticknor,  as  one  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Zoological 
Museum,  made  some  extemporaneous  remarks  before  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Legislature  of  INIassachusetts,  and  after  returning 
home  he  wrote  down  a  part  of  what  he  remembered  saying. 
One  passage  so  connects  itself  with  the  contents  of  the  preceding 
letter,  that  it  seems  well  it  should  be  added  here.  He  evidently 
felt  that,  during  the  eight  years  that  had  intervened,  his  expecta- 
tions had  been  realized  in  some  degree. 


"O" 


I  know  almost  nothing  of  the  science  he  [Professor  Agassiz]  has 
illustrated,  by  labors  and  sacrifices,  which  I  cannot  find  elsewhere 
among  us.  But  this  we  all  know.  The  diff'erent  branches  of  human 
knowledge  are  closely  connected,  and  each  contributes  its  part  to 
make  up  the  grand  sum  of  a  state's  culture  and  civilization.  Nor  do 
we  find  that,  in  any  well-organized  institution  for  education,  any  one 
of  these  branches  gets  easily  much  in  advance  of  all  the  others.  It  is 
very  difficult,  very  rarely  known  in  Europe,  where  so  much  depends 
on  protection  and  privilege.  In  our  own  country,  where  everything 
is  so  free,  where  competition  is  of  the  verj'-  essence  of  our  institutions, 
and  where  there  are  everywhere  such  ambitious  longings  for  progress, 
it  seems  absolutely  impossible.  The  great  difficulty  is  at  the  begin- 
ning, to  a^ake  the  first  interest,  to  persuade  us  that  we  are  really 
deficient.  It  is  the  first  step  that  costs.  Get  one  department  to 
move,  and  the  rest  will  follow.  Get  mathematics  to  move,  or  natural 
science,  and  the  languages,  history,  and  literature  will  follow.  Ac- 
tive, earnest  men,  who  are  interested  in  any  one  branch,  will  not  suffer 
it  to  linger  far  behind  the  others. 

Nobody  will,  I  suppose,  deny  that  natural  science  has  been  doing 
this  work  in  Harvard  College  of  late.  But  it  has  done  more.  It  has 
tended  to  open  that  institution  ;  to  make  it  a  free  university,  acces- 
sible to  all,  whether  they  desire  to  receive  instruction  in  one  branch 
or  in  many.  And  for  these  great  services,  tending  to  make  our  chief 
college  like  a  university  on  the  Continent  of  Europe,  and  not  like  a 
close  corporation,  —  such  as  the  English  universities  are,  —  the  cause 
of  natural  science  has,  of  late  years,  been  much  favored  by  liberal  and 
intelligent  men  in  Massachusetts,  as  well  as  by  the  Legislature. 


J 


1 


424  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1859. 

To  Hon  E.  Everett. 

Niagara  Falls,  Augiist  22,  1859. 

My  dear  Everett,  —  By  intimations  in  my  letters  from  Boston,  I 
find  you  must  have  been  there,  only  two  or  three  days  ago.  Of 
course  your  plans  must  have  been  changed  since  we  parted.  Pray 
write  to  me,  therefore,  and  tell  me  what  they  are.  I  hope  you  will 
remain  in  Boston  until  I  return,  which  will  be  in  about  a  month,  — 
certainly  before  October  1 

We  have  had  a  very  pleasant  summer  so  far,  and  are  living  here 
most  agreeably  in  a  cottage  by  ourselves,  but  belonging  to  the  hotel 
on  the  English  side,  and  facing  both  the  falls.  It  is,  on  the  whole,  I 
think,  the  grandest  scene  kno^^^n.  to  me,  though  I  dare  say  there  are 
grander  that  I  have  never  visited 

When  we  first  came  here.  Sir  Edmund  and  Lady  Head  —  who 
are  only  four  or  five  hours  off  by  rail  —  came  and  made  us  a  visit 
of  a  few  days,  since  which  we  have  passed  a  fortnight  with  them 
at  Toronto  and  are  not  without  hopes  that  they  will  come  to  us 
again  before  we  return  home.  She  is  a  very  charming,  highly  cul- 
tivated person,  and  he  is  one  of  the  most  accurate  and  accomplished 
scholars  I  have  ever  kno^vn.  He  has  been  a  good  deal  in  Spain, 
and  has  some  curious  Spanish  books  in  his  large  library,  over 
which  we  have  had  much  talk.  I  think  he  can  repeat  more  poe- 
try, Greek,  Latin,  German,  and  Spanish,  than  any  person  I  ever 
knew. 

Toronto  is  much  more  of  a  place,  and  there  are  more  cultivated 
people  there,  than  I  had  any  notion  of.  They  have  a  good  college 
for  certain  purposes,  but  the  Province  has  another,  on  a  larger  and 
more  liberal  scale.  They  are  just  completing  for  it  a  very  large  stone 
building,  —  three  sides  of  a  quadrangle,  —  which  is  a  finer  build- 
ing and  better  adapted  to  its  purposes  than  any  similar  one  in  the 
United  States  ;  I  suspect  a  finer  building  than  any  we  have  for  any 
purpose  whatever,  except  the  Capitol  at  Washington.  It  is  in  the 
Norman  style  of  architecture 

But  if  we  are  ignorant,  as  I  think  we  are,  about  Canada,  they  are 
quite  as  ignorant  about  us.  I  think  they  hardly  know  more  than  the 
people  in  England  do 

We  are  all  well,  and  send  kindest  regards 

Yours  sincerely, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


M.  68.]  BIRTHDAY  OF  WASHINGTON  IRVING.  425 


To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  March  26,  1860. 
I  have  been  invited  by  the  Historical  Society  of  New  York,  with 
Everett  and  one  or  two  more  hereabouts,  to  listen  in  their  Music  Hall 
to  a  discourse  which  Bryant,  the  poet,  will  deliver  on  Washington 
Irving's  birthday,  April  .3,  in  honor  of  his  genius  and  virtues.  As  I 
really  loved  and  admired  him  very  much,  —  having  lived  a  good  deal 
with  him  in  London  in  1818-19,  just  before  the  "Sketch  Book" 
came  out,  when  he  was  in  straitened  circumstances  and  little  known, 

—  I  mean  to  go.  I  will  not  disguise  from  you,  however,  that  Mrs. 
Ticknor  and  Anna,  without  whom,  and  their  influence,  I  should  not 
move,  want  a  spree,  and  that  Everett  has  entered  into  a  bond  to  do 
all  the  talking.     In  this  way  I  count  upon  a  good  time 

I  had  a  letter  yesterday  from  Lord  Carlisle.  He  seems  to  think 
that  busy  times  are  on  them  in  Europe,  and  rejoices  —  as  we  do  here 

—  that  there  are  no  complications  with  the  United  States.  Glad- 
stone, too,  he  praises,  as  Reinike  says,  utermaten;  but  throws  in  a 
little  doubt  whether  his  judgment  is  equal  to  his  genius  and  virtue. 
How  striking  it  is,  that  two  such  scholars  as  he  and  Lewis  should 
have  made  such  capital  Chancellors  of  the  Exchequer !  I  think  either 
of  them  could,  while  in  office,  have  stood  successfully  for  a  scholar- 
ship at  Oxford.  But  what  is  Lewis  doing  with  Babrius,  and  what  set 
him  out  to  do  anything  with  him  ?  I  only  know  the  bookseller's 
announcement. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Gardiner,  Mai^te,  July  26,  1860. 

My  dear  Head,  —  Your  letter  has  come  round  by  Boston,  and 
reached  me  here,  where  Mrs.  Ticknor  and  I  are  making  a  visit  to  our 
old  friends,  the  Gardiners.  I  was  very  glad  to  get  it,  and  to  know 
that  vou  are  safe  and  well  home  from  your  fishin<?-frolic  ;  and  that 
you  had  good  success.  I  take  it  that  few  of  the  one  hundred  and  five 
salmon  that  were  slaupjhtered  were  killed  bv  anv  hand  but  vours. 
If  you  get  from  it  strength  to  face  the  campaign  now 'impending,  it 
will  have  done  a  good  work  for  you. 

We  came  here  last  week,  and  shall  remain  till  the  last  day  of  the 
present  one,  when  we  return  home,  where  I  have  needful  occupations 
for  three  or  four  days.  But  after  that  we  shall  be  most  happy  to  join 
Lady  Head,  having  no  engagements  from  August  5  to  September. 
We  shall  arrange  our  affairs  so  as  to  go  to  Gorham,  whenever  Lady 


426  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOK.  [I860. 

Head  advises  us  that  slie  shall  be  glad  to  have  us  come.  It  is  a  good 
while  since  I  have  been  in  that  country,  and  I  shall  enjoy  it  very 
much  ;  and  besides  that,  I  think  I  shall  find  it  salutary.  Since  the 
last  winter  and  spring,  when  I  was  a  little  overworked  and  run  down, 
I  find  a  tonic  atmosphere  very  useful 

Certainly  we  shall  be  at  home  all  the  month  of  October,  .... 
and  count  very  much  upon  your  visit.     Pray  make  it  as  long  as  you 

can 

r^  I  shall  be  glad  to  have  Garibaldi  succeed  ;  but  I  do  not  see  how  all 
the  Italian  questions,  which  seem  to  be  getting  more  and  more  com- 
plicated every  day,  are  to  be  peaceably  solved.  Venice  cannot  remain 
as  it  is,  and  yet  the  rest  of  Italy  be  made  quiet ;  the  Pope  will  not 
give  up  ;  the  Emperor  cannot  depose  hun,  or  permit  revolution  to  go 
further  in  Italy  than  it  has  gone.  In  short,  it  is  much  like  the  old 
case  of  undertaking  to  blow  the  barrel  of  gunpowder  half-way  down. 
I  do  not  see  how  it  is  to  end.  I  am  in  great  hopes,  however,  that 
Louis  Napoleon  was  made  to  feel,  at  Baden,  that  there  are  limits  to 
his  power  which  he  must  not  attempt  to  pass  ;  and  from  what  I  hear, 
\^    I  think  he  was  made  to  feel  it. 

I  shall  hardly  hear  from  you  again  until  your  flurry  is  over,*  but 
Lady  Head  will  tell  us  all  about  it.  Her  case  is  a  new  illustration  of 
the  beneficent  result  of  the  revolution  of  1776,  which  made  the  United 
States  a  refuge  for  the  oppressed.  Please  give  the  love  of  all  of  us  to 
her,  and  to  C.  and  A.,  and  assure  them  that  we  shall  endeavor  to  keep 
up  the  reputation  of  our  country  for  humanity. 

Yours  always  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Mr.  Charles  S.  Daveis. 

Boston,  October  13,  1860. 
My  dear  Charles,  —  Since  I  wrote  from  the  Glen,t  I  have  heard 
of  you  —  until  yest,erday  —  only  by  accident.  Our  calculations  for 
our  tour  in  the  Mountains  were  overrun  by  two  days,  so  that,  when 
we  reached  Gorham  again,  I  had  no  time  either  to  see  Lady  Head  off 
for  Quebec,  or  to  stop  a  night  in  Portland  and  see  you,  both  of  which 
I  much  regretted.  Since  our  nominal  return  to  Boston,  which  was 
necessary  to  keep  other  engagements,  we  have  been  little  at  home. 
"We  made  a  \dsit  directly  to  our  kinsfolk  in  Berkshire,  J  which  had 

*  The  visit  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  to  Canada. 

t  Tn  the  White  Mountains. 

J  Hon.  B.  R.  Cui'tis  and  Ms  family. 


M.  69.]  VISIT  OF  THE  PRINCE  OF  WALES.  427 

been  promised  three  successive  years  ;  then  we  went  to  New  York  to 
buy  carpets,  missing  Cogswell,  or,  as  he  pretends,  avoiding  him  by  a 
day  ;  then  we  went  to  some  friends  on  the  North  River  ;  and  now  we 
are  just  come  back  from  Savage's,"*  where  we  have  been  due  since 
1855.  Of  course  the  few  intervening  days  at  home  have  been  busy 
enough.  The  practical  result,  however,  of  the  whole  is,  that  we  have 
had  an  uncommonly  pleasant  summer,  —  generally  a  gay  one  for  old 
folks,  —  and  that  we  are  now  in  excellent  health,  gathered  comfort- 
ably to  our  own  hearthstone,  with  good  pluck  to  encounter  a  New 
England  winter,  which,  the  two  Annas  like  less  than  I  do. 

Touching  the  Prince's  visit,  —  of  which  you  speak  inquiringly,  —  I 
think  you  know  just  about  as  much  as  I  do Everything,  how- 
ever, has,  I  believe,  been  done  circumspectly,  and  is  likely  to  turn 
out  as  well  as  can  be  expected.  My  whole  service,  I  suppose,  will  be 
to  conduct  Anna  to  the  ball,  —  her  mother  refusing  absolutely  to  go, 
—  for,  as  Judge  Shaw  will  not  be  vis-d-vis  to  the  Prince,  neither 
Sparks  nor  I,  nor  any  of  the  other  gay  young  fellows  associated  with 
us,  can  aspire  to  that  distinction 

Thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind  in^dtation  ;  but  my  migrations 

for  the  rest  of  the  year  can  hardly  be  more  than  the  good  Vicar's,  from 

the  blue  bed  to  the  brown.     You  must  come  here.     You  are  due  some 

time  before  winter,  and  the  sooner  you  come  the  better.     Meantime, 

we  all  send  love  and  kindest  wishes. 

G.  T. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  Tuesday,  October  23,  1860. 

The  Prince's  visit  went  off  as  well  as  possible Two  things 

strike  me  in  the  whole  affair.  The  first  is,  the  deep  ground  of  the  cor- 
diality on  the  part  of  the  masses.  It  is,  I  believe,  that  they  felt  they 
could  show  their  good- will,  without  any  fear  of  its  being  misconstrued 
into  flattery.  When  we  were  young  and  weak,  our  pride  made  us 
sensitive,  and  we  were  not  disposed  to  such  exhibitions  of  feeling. 
The  ill-will  of  the  War  of  Independence  continued  long  ;  continued, 
indeed,  until  lately  ;  and  there  has  been  a  strong  sense  —7  produced 
by  the  ignorance  and  indiscretion  of  reviews  and  newspapers  —  that 
we  were  undervalued  by  your  nation.  But  the  coming  of  your  Prince 
among  us  was  a  compliment  not  to  be  misinterpreted  or  misunder- 
stood, and  showed  a  confidence  in  our  good  feelings,  which  a  people, 

*  Mr.  James  Savage's  coimtry-place  at  Lunenburg,  in  the  northern  part  of 
Massachusetts. 


428  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1860. 

with  much  less  generosity  in  their  natures  than  I  believe  my  country- 
men to  possess,  could  not  fail  to  accept,  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  was 
offered.  And  they  have  certainly  done  it.  I  have  no  more  doubt  of 
it  than  I  have  of  any  fact  in  history.* 

The  other  thing  is,  that  the  open  cordiality  of  the  people  here  has 
rebuked  and  silenced  anything  that  remained,  in  newspaper  editors 
and  reporters,  of  the  old  feelings  of  ill-will  toward  your  country.  I 
have  watched  the  tone  of  our  papers  ever  since  the  Prince  touched  at 
Newfoundland,  and  have  observed  how  their  tone  has  gradually 
changed,  from  occasional  touches  of  ill  manners  to  such  as  are  un- 
exceptionable. This  is  especially  true  of  the  old  democratic  papers  ; 
those,  I  mean,  that  have  always  taken  sides  against  England,  from  the 
time  of  the  French  Revolution.  It  is  most  desirable,  and  important, 
that  this  tone  in  our  newspapers  should  be  kept  up,  and  that  it  should 
be  met  in  a  similar  spirit  by  yours.  On  this  point,  both  sides  have 
heretofore  behaved  badly  enough,  and  done  more,  I  suspect,  than  all 
other  causes,  to  keep  up  an  ill-will  between  the  two  countries.  For- 
merl}^,  we  were  most  in  fault.  Latterly,  —  allow  me  to  say  it,  —  you 
have  been  most  in  fault,  especially  the  "  Times,"  the  "  Saturday  Re- 
view," and  the  "  Quarterly "  ;  whose  occasional  blunders  about  the 
most  obvious  thincjs  onlv  vex  us  the  more,  that  men,  so  imiorant  of 
what  they  discuss,  should  undertake  to  pass  judgment  upon  our  char- 
acter and  doings. 

Now  is  the  time  to  change  all  this.  We  are  in  the  best  possible 
temper  for  it,  and  are  likely  to  continue  so,  if  nothing  comes  from 
your  side  to  cross  and  disturb  us Our  people  are  now  in  ex- 
cellent humor  with  themselves,  and  with  you  ;  such,  so  far  as  England 
is  concerned,  as  I  never  saw  before,  and  never  hoped  to  live  to  see. 
If  your  people  are  in  the  same  temper  about  us,  I  think  no  trouble  of 
a  serious  nature  will  arise  in  this  creneration 

O 

I  have  written  such  a  long  letter,  about  matters  with  which  I  have 
very  small  concern,  that  I  have  hardly  room  to  send  the  love  of  all 
of  us  to  dear  Lady  Head,  and  C.  and  A.  I  shall  look  to  hear  from  you 
very  soon,  and  to  have  you  all  again  under  my  roof-tree  in  February. 

Faithfully  yours, 

G.  TiCKNOR. 

*  In  answering  this  letter  Sir  Edmund  says  :  "  The  views  which  yon  express 
with  reference  to  the  effect  of  the  Prince's  visit  are,  I  believe,  quite  correct.  I 
have  taken  measures  for  letting  the  Queen  see  such  portions  of  your  letter  as 
bear  directly  on  the  benefits  likely  to  acci'ue  to  both  countries,  and  I  hope  you 
will  not  thmk  me  indiscreet  in  doing  so 


^.  69.]  LETTER  FROM  SIR  EDMUND  HEAD.  429 

From  Sir  E.  Head. 

ATHENiEUM,  [London,]  November  23,  1860. 

My  dear  Ticknor,  —  I  owe  you  another  letter,  were  it  only  to 
thank  you  for  your  kindness  in  writing  again  so  soon.  I  am  able  to 
say  that  everybody  in  this  country  sets  the  highest  value  on  the  cour- 
tesy and  friendly  bearing  towards  the  Prince,  shown  in  the  United 
States.  I  may  begin  from  the  top,  for  I  had  the  opportunity  of  talk- 
ing both  to  the  Queen  and  Prince  Albert  on  the  subject  last  week. 
Your  Minister  (Dallas)  and  his  wife  were  at  the  Castle  at  the  same 
time  with  myself.  The  Prince  appeared  in  good  spirits,  and  per- 
fectly recovered  from  his  long  voyage.  Neither  her  IMajesty  nor 
the  Prince  s'pohe  to  me  of  your  letters,  but  General  Phipps  wrote  to 
Lewis,  saying  how  much  they  were  interested  by  the  first.  Lewis 
read  to  them  such  portions  of  the  second  as  were  adapted  to  royal 
ears 

Prince  Albert  expressed  himself  to  me  personally  in  terms  much 
stronger  than  were  necessary  with  reference  to  the  Prince's  visit.  I 
attributed  a  large  portion  of  its  success  to  the  Prince  of  Wales's  owti 
courtesy  and  good-nature,  which  is  strictly  true.  Palmerston  and 
Lord  John  Russell  were  at  the  Castle,  —  the  former  vigorous  enough 
to  walk  upwards  of  three  miles  wdth  me  and  Lord  St.  Germans  in  the 
afternoon  of  Sunday. 

Lady  Head  is  tolerably  well,  but  she  has  had  a  bad  cold.  We  are 
at  Farrance's,  near  Eaton  Square,  which  is  a  most  comfortable  hotel. 
On  Saturday,  December  11,  we  shall  be  at  Oxford,  on  our  way  to  the 
West.  Milman  is  very  well;  so  are  the  Lyells.  I  examined  Lyell's 
collection  of  the  flint  axe-heads  from  St.  Acheul,  in  Picardy,  con- 
temporaneous with  the  elephants,  etc.  Of  their  human  origin  there 
can  be  no  doubt.  The  evidence  of  design  in  their  fabrication  is  as 
clear  as  it  would  be  in  Paley's  watch.  Lyell  speaks  confidently  of 
their  geological  date. 

Twisleton  and  his  wife  dined  at  Kent  House  last  night.  She  is 
looking  "  peaky  "  from  a  cold,  but  otherwise  w^ell. 

Hogarth  will  resuscitate  your  print,  and  I  have  told  him  to  frame 
it  plainly. 

There  is,  I  think,  a  considerable  theological  movement,  since  I  was 
last  in  England,  in  a  rationalistic  direction. 

Kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Ticknor  and  Anna. 

Yours  truly, 

Edmuxd  Head. 


430  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1860. 


To  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  Bart. 

Boston,  November  27, 1860. 

My  dear  Lyell,  —  You  will  be  glad,  I  think,  to  hear  something 
about  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  United  States,  from  somebody  with 
whom  you  are  so  well  acquainted  that  you  will  know  how  to  measure 
what  he  says 

All  men,  I  think,  are  satisfied  that  our  principles  of  government 
are  about  to  be  put  to  the  test  as  they  never  yet  have  been.  The 
sectional  parties,  that  Washington  and  Hamilton  foresaw  as  our 
greatest  danger,  and  which  Calhoun,  Clay,  Webster,  and  J.  Q. 
Adams  died  believing  they  would  break  up  the  Union,  are  now 
fully  formed 

From  the  time  of  Calhoun,  or  from  the  announcement  of  his  dan- 
gerous and  unsound  doctrines,  that  is,  from  1828,  to  1832,  the  people 
of  South  Carolina  have  been  gradually  coming  to  the  conclusion  that 
it  is  not  for  their  material  interest  to  continue  in  the  Union.  Nearly 
all  have  now  come  to  this  persuasion.*  ....  They  care  little  whether 
any  other  State  goes  with  them  ;  so  extravagantly  excited  have  they 

become The  State  most  likely  to  go  with  them  is  Alabama. 

Georgia  is  very  much  excited,  and  very  unsound,  as  we  think  ;  and 

Florida,  a  State  of  less  consequence,  is  quite  ready  to  go South. 

Carolina,  however,  is  the  only  State  about  which,  at  this  moment, 
there  seems  little  or  no  doubt.  But  property  everwhere  is  the  great 
bond  of  society  ;  and  in  our  slave-holding  States  the  negroes  consti- 
tute an  extraordinary  proportion  of  the  wealth  of  the  people 

This  property,  which,  at  the  time  when  the  Constitution  was  formed, 
existed  in  nearly  all  the  States,  we  all  promised  should  be  secured  to 
the  South  by  the  return  of  their  fugitive  slaves,  and  without  this 
promise  the  Constitution  could  not  have  been  formed  at  all.  The 
slave  States  are  now  in  a  minority,  and  several  of  the  free  States  have 
enacted  laws  to  prevent  the  return  of  these  fugitives.  This  is  the 
main,  substantial  ground  of  their  complaints.  But  it  is  not  the  only 
or  chief  ground.  They  believe  themselves  in  danger ;  and  many  of 
the  leading  men  all  through  the  South  believe  that  if  there  were  no 
danger  in  the  case  they  should  be  better  out  of  the  Union  than  they 
are  in  it. 

All  this,  as  you  at  once  perceive,  is  neither  legal  nor  logical.     The 

*  The  passages  omitted  consist  of  amplifications  and  citations  of  facts,  wliich 
seem  needless  now,  and  occupy  much  space. 


JE.ed.]  SECESSION  ILLOGICAL.  431 

laws  they  complain  of  have  nowhere  prevented  the  return  of  their 

fugitive  slaves Moreover,  they  can  be  in  no  immediate  danger. 

....  But  all  this  avails  nothing.  The  cry  is,  that  the  South  is  in 
clanger,  because  the  South  is  in  the  minority,  and  is  weak  ;  and  they 
had  better  go  out  of  the  Union  before  they  become  weaker  and  more 
feeble  by  the  constantly  increasing  power  of  the  free  States 

Meanwhile,  the  very  suggestion  has  thrown  the  finances  of  the  coun- 
try into  confusion.  There  was  a  panic  last  week,  worse  in  many  re- 
spects than  the  formidable  one  of  1857 It  was  foreseen  by 

nobody,  and  is  a  proof  not  only  of  the  importance  of  the  political 
questions  at  issue,  but  of  the  peculiar  sensitiveness  of  men  in  a  gov- 
ernment which  is  so  purely  a  matter  of  opinion,  and  which  has  so  few 
traditions  and  precedents  to  rest  vipon.  Where  it  will  end,  no  man 
can  tell.  With  greater  real  wealth  than  we  ever  had  before  ;  with 
enormous  crops,  which  are  so  much  wanted  in  Europe  that  they  are 
sure  to  be  turned  into  ready  money  at  once  ;  and  with  exchanges  in 
our  favor,  so  that  gold  is  coming  in  daily,  one  would  think  that  it 
should  end  at  once.  But  if  we  are  going  to  quarrel  at  home,  we  have 
an  element  in  our  reckoning  that  was  never  there  before,  and  the 

value  and  import  of  which  none  are  wise  enough  to  estimate 

If  any  country  in  all  the  world  were  governed  according  to  the  well- 
understood  demands  of  its  material  interests,  the  people  of  that  coun- 
try would  be  better  off  than  the  people  of  any  other  country  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  But  passions  and  personal  interests  rule  more  or 
less  everywhere.  Plectuntur  Achivi  is  as  true  now  as  it  was  eighteen 
hundred  or  three  thousand  years  ago 

One  thing,  however,  is  certain.  There  will  be  more  real  profitable, 
substantial  thinking  upon  political  subjects  done  in  the  United  States 
during  the  next  six  months,  than  has  been  done  during  the  last  ten 

years In  no  event  will  there  be  any  attempt  at  coercion  until 

vre  are  much  further  ahead  in  our  troubles  and  exasperation 

If  it  comes  to  fighting,  we  of  the  North  of  course  shall  beat.  We 
have  the  moral  and  physical  power,  the  wealth,  and  all  the  other 
means  needful  to  carry  through  the  contest  successfully.  But  it  will 
be  such  a  contest  as  the  civilized  world  has  not  seen  for  a  long  time  ; 
much  like  one  of  the  old  contests  between  the  Greek  republics,  and 
at  the  end,  when,  if  it  ever  happens,  we  must  have  three,  or  four,  or 
five  millions  of  uneducated  slaves  on  our  hands,  what  shall  we  do 
with  them  ?  Anna  —  the  younger  —  asked  this  question  of  Count 
Cavour,  in  his  opera-box,  one  night,*  after  he  had  shown  us  that  he 

*  In  1857.    See  ayite,  p.  352. 


432  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1860. 

knew  more  about  the  politics  and  parties  of  this  country  tlian  any 
Italian  we  had  seen  all  the  preceding  winter.  "  Mademoiselle,"  he 
answered,  "je  crois  que  vous  parlerez  beaucoup  de  Femancipation,  et 
que  vous  emanciperez  fort  peu."  Shall  we  come  to  this  condition, 
this  point  1  I  trust  not  in  my  time  ;  but  we  are  nearer  to  it  than  — 
six  months  ago  —  I  thought  it  was  possible  we  should  be  in  ten  years. 
....  By  the  end  of  January  you  will  be  able  to  judge  of  all  these 
things  as  well  as  we  can.     By  that  time  the  programme  will  be  out. 

Some  people  —  and  among  them  two  or  three  whose  opinions  are 
worth  having  —  believe  that  leading  men  at  the  South  have  already 
an  understanding  with  Louis  Napoleon,  that,  for  certain  advantages 
in  trade,  he  should  enter  into  an  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive, 
Avith  them.  I  do  not  believe  in  this.  But  it  may  come  with 
time 

Anna  wrote  to  Lady  Lyell  so  much  about  the  Prince's  visit,  that  I 
can  add  nothing,  except  my  conviction  that  it  has  done  good  to  the 

relations  of  the  two  countries The  Duke  of  Newcastle  and  Dr. 

Acland  were  the  only  two  persons  of  whom  I  saw  a  little,  to  any  real 
pui'pose,  during  their  two  or  three  days'  visit  here.  The  Doctor  is  a 
most  interesting  and  attractive  person.  There  can  be  no  doubt  about 
that.     The  Duke  talked  well  and  wisely 

Commend  us  to  Sir  Edmund  and  Lady  Head  when  you  see  them. 

We  had  a  charming  \'isit  from  them  when  they  embarked,  and  most 

pleasant  letters  since  their  arrival. 

Yours  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

In  a  letter  to  Sir  Edmund  Head  Mr.  Ticknor  says  :  — 

With  Dr.  Acland  I  had  a  charming  day,  driving  about  in  Cam- 
bridge, Charlestown,  and  Boston,  seven  or  eight  hours,  —  one  of 
which,  or  nearly  one,  was  spent  with  him  and  Agassiz,  alone  in  Agas- 
siz's  Museum,  and  of  which  I  must  give  you  an  account  when  I  see 
you.     It  was  one  of  the  remarkable  hours  of  my  life. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head,  Bart. 

Boston,  April  8, 1861. 
My  dear  Head,  —  We  are  all  asleep  here,  and  have  been  for  some 

time,  personally  and  politically All  North  —  the  old  Union 

—  is  asleep,  but  is  not  therefore  doing  well.  In  my  judgment  we  are 
drifting.  Perhaps  some  anchor  will  hold.  But,  if  it  does,  the  cable 
may  snap.     Of  course,  with  these  views,  I  do  not  feel  better  about  our 


JE.  69.]  CIVIL  WAR.  433 

affairs  than  I  did  when  you  were  here ;  *  nor  take  a  more  cheerful 
view  of  them  than  you  do  in  your  letters. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  April  9,  1861. 

I  had  a  letter  this  morning  from  a  gentleman  in  Baltimore,  emi- 
nent for  his  talents  and  position,  who  has  exercised  much  influence 
through  the  border  States  against  secession  during  the  last  four 
months.  But  he  is  now  much  disheartened.  He  says  that  disunion 
sentiments  are  gaining  ground  in  Virginia  and  Maryland.  He  feels, 
as  I  think  I  told  you  I  do,  that  we  are  drifting,  and  that  nobody 
knows  where  we  shall  fetch  up.  "An  intimate  friend,"  he  says, 
"  and  as  I  think  the  clearest-headed  of  the  foreign  ministers  at  Wash- 
ington, and  a  lover,  too,  of  the  United  States,  writes  to  me,  '  We  are 
here  still  in  great  uncertainty,  and  the  process  of  disintegration  finds 
no  remedy.' " 

I  think  the  same  sense  of  uncertainty  prevails  everywhere.     This, 

in  itself,  is  mischief  and  disaster. 

Yours  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  April  21,  1861. 

My  dear  Head,  —  I  sent  you  by  yesterday's  express  a  parcel, 
about  which  the  two  papers  I  enclose  will  give  you  all  the  informa- 
tion you  will  need.  The  Danish  books,  I  think,  will  be  all  you  will 
want  for  some  time. 

But  there  are  other  things  to  talk  about  now.  The  heather  is  on 
fire.  I  never  before  knew  what  a  popular  excitement  can  be.  Holi- 
day enthusiasm  I  have  seen  often  enough,  and  anxious  crowds  I  re- 
member during  the  war  of  1812-15,  but  never  anything  like  this. 
Indeed,  here  at  the  North,  at  least,  there  never  was  anything  like  it ; 
for  if  the  feeling  were  as  deep  and  stern  in  1775,  it  was  by  no  means 
so  intelligent  or  unanimous  ;  and  then  the  masses  to  be  moved  were 
as  a  handful  compared  to  our  dense  population  now. 

The  whole  people,  in  fact,  has  come  to  a  perception  that  the  question 
is,  whether  we  shall  have  anarchy  or  no.  The  sovereign  —  for  the 
people  is  the  only  sovereign  in  this  country  —  has  begun  to  exercise 
his  sovereign  functions.     Business  is  substantially  suspended.     Men 

*  Six  months  before. 
VOL.  II.  19  BB 


434  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1861. 


think,  wisely  or  unwisely,  of  the  state  of  affairs,  and  not  of  much.- else. 
The  whole  population,  men,  women,  and  children,  seem  to  be  in  the 
streets  with  Union  favors  and  flags  ;  walking  about  uneasily,  because 
their  anxiety  and  nervous  excitement  will  not  permit  them  to  stay  at 
home,  where  all  ordinary  occupation  has  become  unsavory.  Public 
meetings  are  held  everywhere,  in  the  small  towns  and  villages  as 
much  as  in  the  cities  ;  considerable  sums  of  money  are  voted  to  sustain 
the  movement  and  take  care  of  the  families  of  those  who  are  mustered 
into  service  ;  and  still  larger  sums  are  given  by  individuals.  Nobody 
holds  back.  Civil  war  is  freely  accepted  everywhere  ;  by  some  with 
alacrity,  as  the  only  means  of  settling  a  controversy  based  on  long- 
cherished  hatreds  ;  by  others  as  something  sent  as  a  judgment  from 
Heaven,  like  a  flood  or  an  earthquake  ;  by  all  as  inevitable,  by  all  as 
the  least  of  the  evils  among  which  we  are  permitted  to  choose,  anarchy 
being  the  obvious,  and  perhaps  the  only  alternative. 

Here  in  Boston  the  people  are  constantly  gathering  about  the  State 
House  —  which  you  know  is  in  front  of  my  windows  —  and  about 
Faneuil  Hall,  where  the  troops  chiefly  assemble  or  halt  on  their  way 
through  town.  When  soldiers  march  by  there  is  grave  shouting  ; 
nothing  like  the  common  cheering.  There  is  an  earnestness  such  as 
I  never  witnessed  before  in  any  popular  movement. 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  April  28, 1861. 

It  [the  last  letter]  was  written  just  a  week  ago,  and  contained  my 
first  impressions  about  our  outbreak  at  the  North.  Its  character  — 
that  of  the  outbreak  —  remains  the  same  ;  much  enthusiasm,  much 
deep  earnestness.  Men  and  money  are  profusely  offered  ;  the  best 
blood  among  us  volunteering  and  going,  and  money  untold  following 
them.  Of  course,  more  or  less  of  both  will  be  wasted  ;  but  it  is  of 
consequence  that  the  resolute  courage  and  devotion  should  be  sus- 
tained, and  they  are  not  likely  to  cost  too  much.  We  have  been  slow 
to  kindle  ;  but  we  have  made  a  Nebuchadnezzar's  furnace  of  it  at  last, 
and  the  heat  will  remain,  and  the  embers  will  smoulder,  long  after  the 
flames  that  now  light  up  everything  shall  cease  to  be  seen  or  felt. 

The  solid  men  of  Boston  are  just  organizing  a  State  movement  to 
collect  funds,  which  shall  be  systematically  applied  when  the  resources 

of  this  first  enthusiasm  begin  to  fail Thus  far  it  has  been,  on 

our  part,  a  sort  of  crusade.  But  the  regular  armies  will  soon  be  ready 
to  follow. 


JE.e9.]  AWAKENING  OF  THE  NORTH.  435 

Tbroiigli  the  whole  of  the  last  six  months,  you  see  the  working  of 
our  political  institutions  most  strikingly.  The  people  is  the  practical 
sovereign,  and,  until  the  people  had  been  appealed  to,  and  had  moved, 
the  Administration,  whether  of  Buchanan  or  of  Lincoln,  could  act  with 
little  efficiency.  We  drifted.  Now  the  rudder  is  felt.  Maryland  must 
yield,  or  become  a  battle-ground  over  which  the  opposing  forces  will 
roll  their  floods  alternately.  Baltimore  must  open  her  gates,  or  the 
city  will  be  all  but  razed.    At  least,  so  far  we  seem  to  see  ahead. 

But  the  people,  the  sovereign,  came  to  the  rescue  at  the  last  moment. 
....  Now  the  movement  —  partly  from  having  been  so  long  delayed 
and  restrained  —  is  become  absolute  and  impetuous,  so  that  twice  as 
many  troops  will  speedily  be  in  Scott's  hands  as  he  will  want 

Meantime,  I  think  that  the  moral  effect  of  our  union  and  vigor  at 
the  North  —  which  was  wholly  unexpected  at  the  South  —  will  tend 
to  repress  the  Southern  ardor  for  conquest,  if  not  for  fighting.  We 
have  never  apprehended  that  we  should  be  worsted  in  the  end,  and 
we  do  not  now  anticipate  early  reverses,  or  accidents  of  any  conse- 
quence.   We  mean,  on  all  accounts,  to  fight  it  out,  once  for  all 

Yours  truly, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


436  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1859. 


CHAPTEE    XXII. 

1859  to  1864.  — Life  of  Prescott.  —  Civil  War, 

THE  heavy  loss  of  dear  and  trusted  friends  had  fallen  on  Mr. 
Ticknor  repeatedly,  for  in  Haven,  Legare,  and  Webster 
he  had  parted  from  much  that  gave  charm  and  interest  to  his 
thoughtful  life  at  different  periods ;  but  no  blow  of  this  kind 
struck  so  near  the  centre  of  his  heart  as  that  which  deprived  him 
of  the  delightful  companionship  of  Prescott.  Such  constant 
affection  as  had  united  them  for  forty  years  is  very  rare,  and 
their  sympathy  of  tastes,  heightened  by  the  charm  of  Prescott's 
winning,  joyous,  affectionate  nature,  made  their  daily  intercourse 
—  and  it  was  almost  daily  when  both  were  in  Boston  —  fasci- 
nating as  well  as  important  to  their  happiness. 

The  warning  of  coming  danger,  given  by  Mr.  Prescott's  illness 
in  1858,  had  not  been  lost  from  sight,  but  there  was  much  to 
feed  the  hope  that  he  might  still  be  spared  for  some  years,  and 
Mr.  Ticknor  said  in  a  letter  to  Sir  Edmund  Head,^  after  his 
death,  "The  shock  to  me  and  to  those  nearest  to  him  could 
hardly  have  been  greater  if  he  had  been  struck  down  two  years 
ago."  A  short  time  afterwards, t  in  writing  to  Mrs.  Twisleton, 
he  says  :  "  I  do  not  get  accustomed  to  the  loss.  Indeed,  some- 
thing or  other  seems  to  make  it  faU  afresh  and  heavier  almost 
every  day.  I  go  to  the  house  often,  of  course,  and  always  find 
Susan  in  the  little  upper  study  where  he  used  to  work,  with 
everything  just  as  he  left  it  the  moment  before  he  was  struck 
down,  ....  and  the  whole  room  crowded  and  tapestried  with 

associations  and  memories Much  sunshine  has  been  taken 

out  of  my  way  of  life  for  the  few  years  that  I  am  to  tread  it,  — 

*  Dated  February  21,  1859,  Mr.  Prescott  having  died  January  27. 
t  March  8,  1859. 


M.  67.]  DEATH  OF  MR.   PRESCOTT.  437 

perhaps  the  few  months  only,  for  I  seem  to  have  grown  old 
fast  of  late,  and  can  see  only  a  very  little  distance  before  me." 
The  account  he  afterwards  gave  —  in  the  Memoir  —  of  his 
friend's  death,  and  of  its  effect,  contains  no  direct  allusion  to 
his  own  feeling,  but  every  word  bears  the  impress  of  a  pathetic 
undercurrent  of  emotion,  which  makes  that  chapter  wholly  dif- 
ferent from  anything  that  would  have  been  written  by  one  who 
stood  in  any  other  relation  to  the  subject  of  it. 

The  public  recognition  of  its  loss,  ''such  a  sensation  as  was 
never  produced  in  this  country  by  the  death  of  a  man  of  let- 
ters " ; "'  the  recollection  that  not  the  slightest  neglect  or  impru- 
dence had  hastened  the  end  ;  and  that  at  the  last  moment  of  con- 
sciousness Prescott  was  his  natural,  cheerful  self,  —  these  were  all 
admitted  sources  of  comfort.  Mr.  Ticknor's  faithful  devotion 
and  most  delightful  relations  to  the  family  of  his  friend,  under 
whose  will  he  was  a  trustee  of  his  ample  property,  and  whose 
children  always  looked  on  him  as  if  he  were  one  of  their  near- 
est relatives,  was  a  further  source  of  comfort. 

Very  soon  Mrs.  Prescott  and  her  children  asked  him  to  pre- 
pare a  Memoir  of  his  friend,  and  he  consented,  with  no  hesita- 
tion, except  a  little  consideration  whether,  at  his  age,  he  might 
venture  on  so  absorbing  a  task. 

On  the  19th  of  April  he  wrote  as  follows  to  Lady  Lyell :  — 

Boston,  April  19,  1859. 
My  dear  Lady  Lyell,  —  I  come  to  you  for  help,  which  you  will 
readily  give  me.  I  think  I  shall  write  a  Life  of  Prescott,  and,  if  I 
do,  I  shall  set  about  it  at  once.  But,  first  of  all,  I  want  to  see  the 
materials  for  it  collected  and  arranged.  Those  in  possession  of  the 
family  are  ample  and  interesting  ;  especially  a  large  number  of 
memoranda  concerning  the  course  and  modes  of  his  studies,  from  the 
very  beginning,  with  some  of  which  I  have  been  long  acqiiainted,  but 
did  not  know  their  extent  or  importance  until  I  ran  them  over.  Be- 
sides these,  however,  I  want,  of  course,  all  his  letters  to  his  friends, 
and  all  the  details  I  can  get  from  them.  Nobody  in  England  can 
furnish  a  contribution  of  this  sort  such  as  you  can,  for  nobody  knew 
so  much  of  him  as  you  and  Sir  Charles  did. 

*  To  Don  Pascual  de  Gayangos. 


438  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1859. 

What  I  especially  desire  to  obtain  from  you  is  :  — 

1.  All  his  letters  and  notes  to  you  and  your  family,  which  I  will 
carefully  return  to  you,  after  I  have  taken  from  them  all  I  may  need  ; 
unless  you  prefer  to  send  me  copies. 

2.  Permission  to  print  any  portion  of  the  letters  from  you  and 
yours  which  may  be  found  among  his  papers,  and  which  may  be 
necessary  to  explain  or  illustrate  such  parts  of  his  own  as  may  be 
printed. 

3.  Any  facts  about  him,  and  especially  about  his  visit  to  England, 
of  which  you  knew  more  than  anybody  else  ;  any  anecdotes  of  him  ; 
anything,  in  short,  which  may  tend  to  set  him  rightly  before  the 
world,  as  we  knew  and  loved  him. 

In  furnishing  these  materials  for  his  Life,  I  am  quite  aware  you  will 
be  obliged  to  rely  on  my  discretion,  as  to  the  manner  in  which  they 
will  be  used.  But  I  hope  you  will  feel  safe,  and  I  think  I  can  prom- 
ise that  you  will  be. 

I  shall  write  by  the  next  steamer,  if  not  by  this  one,  to  Dean  Mil- 
man,  to  Mr.  Stirling,  ....  and  to  a  few  others 

When  you  have  anything  ready,  be  it  more  or  less,  just  put  it  under 

an  envelope  and  let  it  come,  without  waiting  for  more I  do 

not  mean  to  be  pressed  or  do  it  in  a  hurry 

I  have  two  capital  letters  from  Sir  Charles.  Thank  him  for  them 
in  the  most  cordial  manner,  and  tell  him  I  shall  write  to  him  as  soon 
as  I  can,  and  go  into  the  Agassiz  matter,t  which  is  very  thriving,  and 
likely  to  come  to  excellent  results.  I  am  more  engaged  in  it  than  I 
ought  to  be,  considering  that  a  more  ignorant  man  in  regard  to  natural 
science  can  hardly  be  found  ;  but  Dr.  Bigelow,  who  is  in  deeper  than 
I  am,  is  safe,  and  he  and  Agassiz  will  be  held  responsible  for  any  mis- 
takes I  may  make.     At  least,  I  intend  they  shall  be 

Anna  wTites,  as  usual,  so  that  nothing  remains  for  me  but  to  give 
you  my  love,  which  you  are  always  sure  of,  as  well  as  that  of  all  mine. 

Geo.  Tickxor. 

Thenceforward  he  gave  himself  to  his  work  of  love  with  a  sad 
pleasure.  During  the  following  summer,  when  he  carried  out 
his  long-cherished  wish  to  pass  several  weeks  at  Niagara,  he  was 
busy  there,  and  while  visiting  Sir  Edmund  Head  at  Toronto, 
writing  about  his  friend.  The  following  letter  contains  an  allu- 
sion to  this  :  — 

*  The  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  at  Cambridge,  of  which  Mr.  Ticknor 
was  a  Trustee,  as  has  already  been  said. 


M.  68.]  "  LIFE  OF  PRESCOTT."  439 

Boston,  October  1, 1859. 

Dear  Lady  Lyell,  —  I  came  home  some  days  ago  and  found  your 
precious  packet.*  Yesterday  and  to-day  I  have  read  it  through,  — 
the  whole  of  it,  —  but  not  with  care,  as  I  shall  read  it  hereafter.  It 
was  too  interesting  for  that.  With  many  passages  I  was  much 
touched,  as  you  may  well  suppose  ;  others  revived  a  thousand  recol- 
lections, —  pleasurable,  painful,  amusing.  After  I  began  to  read  I 
could  not  bear  to  be  interrupted  until  I  had  finished  it.  Nobody  has 
furnished  me  such  a  contribution  ;  no,  not  all  put  together. 

I  get  on  with  my  work  somewhat  slowly,  but  quite  as  fast  as  I  ex- 
pected. The  great  difficulty  is  to  collect  the  materials.  In  this,  his 
English  friends  have  been  more  prompt  than  his  American  ones. 

But  I  cannot  speak  of  this,  or  hardly  of  anything  else,  without  rec- 
ollecting the  Heads.  I  worked  on  Prescott's  Life  when  I  was  at 
Toronto  ;  but  how  changed  is  everything  there  now  !  "What  sorrow  ! 
what  sorrow  !  t  .  .  .  .  We  only  know  thus  far  what  the  telegraph  has 
told  us But  we  shall  have  letters  in  a  day  or  two. 

Sir  Henry  Holland  is  somewhere  in  the  United  States,  —  his  fifth 
visit,  I  think,  within  twenty  years  ;  certainly  his  fourth  within  a 
dozen.  Why  can't  you  and  Sir  Charles  imitate  him  1  .  .  .  .  He  is  to 
be  here  on  Monday  at  Everett's,  w^here  I  dine  with  him  on  Tuesday. 

The  Prescotts  are  still  all  out  of  to^vn,  but  Susan  and  Elizabeth 
come  back  in  four  or  five  days.  They  are  all  well,  but  I  have  as  yet 
seen  none  of  them 

October  4.  —  Sir  Henry  Holland  came  in  yesterday  afternoon  and 

told  me  all  sorts  of  news  about  people  in  London.    He  is  looking  very 

well,  and  can  tell  you  about  all  the  great  men  at  Washington,  for  he 

has  been  stopping  with  the  President.     He  goes  to-morrow  in  the 

steamer  that  takes  this. 

Anna  sends  her  love,  I  mine. 

G.  T. 

AVhen  he  began  the  Life  of  Prescott  he  was  already  in  his 
sixty-eighth  year  ;  and  this  advanced  age  might  have  influenced 
him  unfavorably  in  either  of  two  ways,  making  him  over-fas- 
tidious and  hypercritical  of  his  own  composition,  as  he  grew,  in 
fact,  to  be  a  few  years  later  ;  or  making  him  use  undue  haste,  as 
regarding  too  much  the  possibility  of  not  living  to  finish  it.     He 

*  Lady  Lyell's  reminiscences  of  Mr.  Prescott. 

t  Sir  Edmund  Head  lost  his  only  son  by  dro^vning  at  tliis  time. 


440  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1861. 

avoided  both,  dangers,  wrote  calmly  and  without  hurry ;  and, 
after  giving  about  three  years  to  the  preparation  of  the  manu- 
script, finding  the  time  unfavorable  for  its  pubhcation,  he  kept 
it  by  him  for  a  while,  and,  going  over  it  with  care,  undoubtedly 
added  to  the  grace  and  jDroportion  which  distinguish  it  so  much. 

Meantime  the  civil  war  broke  out,  the  war  which  roused  the 
whole  country,  ]N"orth  and  South,  excited  the  passions  of  men 
with  a  bitterness  and  intensity  scarcely  to  be  conceived  of  by 
those  who  did  not  witness  it,  and  raged  for  four  years  in  the 
Middle  "  border  "  States,  with  an  untiring  obstinacy  that  kept 
every  citizen  under  a  strain  utterly  unknown  in  peaceful  days. 
Mr.  Ticknor's  letters  during  the  spring  of  1861  have  already  de- 
scribed the  23opular  movement.  His  belief  that  the  North  was 
gaining  strength  year  by  year,  while  the  South  was  losing  it, 
remained  the  same,  and  he  always  asserted,  as  he  did  in  those 
letters,  that  the  North  was  sure  to  conquer  in  the  war. 

No  one  who  has  read  what  he  "wrote  during  the  pre^dous  years, 
when  from  afar  he  had  foreseen  the  possibility  of  this  conflict, 
and  had  felt  that  what  his  view  of  true  patriotism  led  him  to 
wish  avoided  or  postponed  was  being  rendered  inevitable,  can 
fail  to  perceive  how  deeply  he  would  share  the  excitement  of  the 
time. 

He  was  in  his  seventieth  year  when  war  became  an  actual  fact. 
The  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  had  been  the  ob- 
ject of  his  pride  and  admiration  from  his  youth,  "  the  best  form 
of  government  that  ever  was  made,"  *  he  saw  often  disregarded, 
heard  often  spoken  of  as  if  it  were  effete.  After  a  visit  in  Maine 
he  wrote  to  Mr.  R  H.  Gardiner,  in  September,  1861  :  "I  recol- 
lect that  the  acute  lawyer  who  was  at  your  house  one  evening 
with  the  mayor  of  your  city  t  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that  we 
have  no  longer  any  Constitution,  and  that  very  little  of  it  had 
been  in  existence  for  some  years.     I  could  not  gainsay  him." 

The  Union,  to  him  a  reality  such  as  it  could  only  be  to  those 
who  had  loved  the  country  while  it  was  small,  and  had  seen  it 

*  See  letter  to  Mr.  Daveis,  ante,  p.  195. 
t  Gardiner,  Maine. 


.E.  70.]  GREAT  QUESTIONS  OF  THE  TIMES.  441 

grow  and  flourish,  was  threatened  and  misrepresented  by  men 
who,  he  felt,  were  misguided  and  desperate.  A  generation  had 
grown  up,  under  his  observation  (though  at  the  South,  where  he 
had  scarcely  been,  and  where  he  had  not  an  intimate  friend  liv- 
ing), which  had,  as  he  knew,  been  by  skilful  leaders  wilfully 
made  blind  as  to  the  nature  of  that  Union  which  he  loved. 
They  were  blind  to  the  fact  that  political  sovereignty  is  capable 
of  division  according  to  subjects  and  powers,  without  lessening 
allegiance  to  the  central  government.  Therefore,  seeing  some 
subjects  and  powers  left  in  the  hands  of  individual  States,  they 
believed  they  could  throw  ofi"  that  allegiance  when  they  pleased. 
He  had  seen  this  process  going  on  for  many  years,  under  the 
guidance  of  Southern  leaders  and  the  menaces  of  JN'orthern  ex- 
tremists. 

Slavery  had  always  been  to  him  a  deeply,  solemnly  interest- 
ing question,  the  institution  always  in  his  eyes  a  curse,  while  he 
had  dreaded  both  for  masters  and  slaves  any  violent  or  sudden 
change.  This  had  now  become  inevitable,  but  its  consequences 
did  not  seem  to  him  more  promising  than  before.  In  February, 
1862,  he  will  be  found  to  say,*  "Since  the  firing  of  the  first 
gun  on  Fort  Sumter  we  have  had,  in  fact,  no  choice.  We  must 
fight  it  out.     Of  the  result  I  have  never  doubted.     A7e  shall 

beat  the  South.     But  what  after  that]     I  do  not  see 

For  the  South  I  have  no  vaticinations.  The  blackness  of  thick 
darkness  rests  upon  them,  and  they  deserve  all  they  will  suffer."  * 

The  passions,  which,  especially  in  the  early  period  of  the  war, 
were  at  a  pitch  that  menaced  a  reign  of  inhumanity  and  political 
persecution,  and  were  actually  expressed  on  both  sides  in  acts 
quite  exceeding  a  lawfid  warfare,  caused  him  acute  pain  and 
anxiety. 

His  long  habit  of  watching  and  reflecting  on  the  political 
movements  of  all  Christendom  made  him  regard  the  subject 
from  a  different  point  of  view  from  most  men ;  his  age  and  com- 

*  In  a  letter  given  a  few  pages  later.    Again,  in  April,  1863,  he  writes  : 
**  Whatever  awaits  us  in  the  dark  future  depends,  I  believe,  neither  on  elec- 
tions nor  speeches  nor  wise  discussions,  but  on  fighting.     I  have  thought  so 
ever  since  the  affair  of  Fort  Sumter,  and  fire  cannot  burn  it  out  of  me." 
19* 


442  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1861. 


parative  seclusion  also  gave  a  color  to  his  feelings.  His  upper- 
most thought  seemed  always  to  be,  that  the  greatest  troubles  for 
the  country  would  come  after  the  I^orth  had  triumphed  and  the 
war  was  over ;  his  deepest  feeling  always  for  the  success  of  the 
Northern  armies  and  the  predominance  of  Northern  civilization. 
In  writing  to  a  young  friend  who  was,  for  the  moment,  carried 
along  with  the  tide  of  bitter  and  resentful  feelings,  he  says  :  *  — 

I  heard  with  great  pain  the  tone  of  your  remarks  about  the  South- 
ern Secessionists  and  their  leaders.  They  are  in  revolt,  no  doubt,  or 
in  a  state  of  revolution,  and  we  must  resist  them  and  their  doctrines 
to  the  death.  We  can  have  no  government  else,  and  no  society  worth 
living  in.  But  multitudes  of  men  in  all  ages  of  the  world  have  been 
under  delusions  equally  strange  and  strong,  and  have  died  loyally 
and  conscientiously  in  defence  of  them.  Multitudes  more  will  fol- 
low. Both  sides  in  such  cases  fight  for  their  opinions,  and  I  had 
hoped  that  the  clay  had  gone  by,  even  in  France  since  1848,  when  the 
prevailing  party  would  resort  to  executions  for  treason,  after  they 
should  have  established  their  own  position  by  victory  or  even  be- 
fore it. 

But,  besides  this,  we  should,  I  think,  recollect,  in  dealing  with  our 
present  enemies,  not  only  that  they  are  fighting  for  what  they  beheve 
to  be  their  rights,  in  open,  recognized  warfare,  but  that,  whether  we  are 
hereafter  to  be  one  nation  or  two,  we  must  always  live  side  by  side, 
and  must  always  have  intimate  relations  with  each  other  for  good  or 
for  evil  to  both  ;  and  I,  therefore,  sincerely  deprecate,  as  for  twenty 
years  I  have  deprecated,  all  bitterness  and  violence  towards  the  South- 
ern States,  as  of  the  worst  augury  for  ourselves,  and  for  the  cause  of 
civilization  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  Such  insane  hatreds  as  are 
now  indulged  by  both  parties  in  this  contest  —  still  more  at  the  South 
than  "WT.th  us  —  can,  I  fear,  only  end  in  calamities  which  none  of  the 
present  generation  will  live  long  enough  to  survive 

I  have  lately  seen,  by  accident,  many  letters  from  the  South  — 
chiefly  mercantile  —  which  breathed  this  spirit  fully.  I  have  seen  it 
placarded  in  the  streets  of  Boston  that  we  should  hang  the  secession 
leaders  as  fast  as  we  can  get  them  into  our  power.  I  have  found  this 
course  openly  urged  in  leading  papers  of  New  York  and  Boston.  It 
is  even  said  that  the  govermnent  at  Washington  is  now  considering 

*  This  letter  is  printed  from  a  draft,  or  copy,  in  Mr.  Ticknor's  writing,  found 
among  his  papers. 


^.70.]  INTEREST  IN  THE  WAR.  443 

the  expediency  of  adopting  it I  have,  indeed,  little  fear  that 

my  government,  or  its  military  chief,  will  seriously  consider  such  a 

suggestion,  none  that  they  will  adopt  it.     But  I  have  great  fear  that 

the  spirit  it  implies  will  enter  deeply  into  the  present  contest,  and 

from  time  to  time  produce  the  deplorable  results  which  it  has  so 

often,  may  I  not  say  so  uniformly,  produced  in  the  civil  wars  that 

have  heretofore  cursed  the  world,  and  of  which  the  atrocities  in  the 

streets  of  Baltimore  and  in  the  hotel  of  Alexandria  are,  I  fear,  only  a 

foretaste. 

It  was  with  these  feelings  that  I  answered  you  the  other  day,  when 

I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  you,  and  if  you  do  not  noio  share  them, 

I  am  sure  you  are  of  a  nature  too  high  and  noble  not  to  share  them 

hereafter. 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

G.  T. 

Mr.  Ticknor  contributed  freely  to  the  regular  and  the  chari- 
table expenditures  of  the  war.*  During  the  early  months  of 
1861  he  carried  on  an  animated  correspondence  with  a  distin- 
guished lawyer  in  Baltimore,  a  Union  man,  for  interchange  of 
information  about  the  daily  movements  of  opinion,  where  such 
vehement  feeling  was  seething  and  surging.  He  welcomed  offi- 
cers returning  on  furlough,  or  passing  through  Boston,  at  his 
house  and  table,  getting  from  each  whatever  of  news  or  indica- 
tions of  popular  feeling  might  come  from  the  front.  He  went 
frequently  to  Braintree  to  see  his  old  friend  General  Thayer, 
whose  opinion  on  military  affairs  was  acknowledged  during  the 
war  by  General  Scott,  in  conversation,  to  be  the  highest  author- 
ity in  the  United  States,  and  these  visits  were  returned  by  the 
old  General,  most  often  at  breakfast-time,  his  own  breakfast 
having  been  taken  at  five  or  half  after.  From  General  Tliayer 
Mr.  Ticknor  received  exact  and  keen-sighted  explanations  of  all 
the  movements  of  the  armies  on  both  sides,  and  was  able  to 
form  clear  judgments  of  the  merits  of  military  men  who  were 
often  misjudged  by  the  public, 

*  He  writes  in  1866,  "  From  that  moment,  therefore  [of  the  attack  on  Fort 
Sumter],  I  began  to  contribute  voluntaHly  in  money  and  in  all  ways  in  which 
a  man  of  above  threescore  and  ten  could  do  it,  to  carry  on  the  war,  giving  more 
in  proportion  to  my  fortune,  I  believe,  than  did  most  of  the  original  AboU- 
tionists. 


444  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1862. 

Mr.  Ticknor  repeatedly  took  regular  officers  of  high  standing 
on  pilgrimages  to  the  old  chief  at  Braintree,  —  General  Eobert 
Anderson,  General  Donaldson,  and  others.  In  the  summer  of 
1862  he  met  General  Scott  at  "West  Point,  being  accidentally 
with  him  at  the  moment  he  was  informed  that  President  Lin- 
coln was  on  his  way  to  consult  him ;  and  when  General  McClel- 
lan  visited  Boston  in  1863,  he  took  great  pleasure  in  meeting 
him.  He  talked  with  every  one  who  could  give  him  trustworthy 
information,  with  the  same  ardor  he  had  always  shown  in  study- 
ing public  men  and  measures  everywhere. 

The  excitements  of  every-day  life  were  great  at  that  period. 
A  long  interval  of  military  inaction,  during  which  political  in- 
trigues, blunders,  and  activity  of  all  sorts  were  abundant,  —  all 
watched  by  Mr.  Ticknor  with  vigilant  observation,  while  he 
questioned  friends  fresh  from  Washington,  and  often  got  knowl- 
edge quite  beyond  the  public  view,  —  would  be  succeeded  by 
battles,  raids,  successes,  failures,  that  filled  the  air  with  the 
sounds  of  war.  More  than  once  the  peaceful  house  in  Park 
Street  was  roused  at  midnight  by  a  friend  bringing  some  start- 
ling telegram,  of  which  he  was  sure  the  knowledge  would  be  no- 
where more  interesting  than  there. 

During  the  first  eighteen  months  of  the  war  his  work  on  the 
biography  of  his  friend  was  a  great  solace  to  Mr.  Ticknor.  After 
reading  the  morning  paper  with  its  war  news,  he  could  retire  to 
his  quiet  library,  and  there,  for  two  or  three  hours,  could  work 
undisturbed,  retracing  the  pleasures  and  interests  of  the  past. 
Later  some  visitor  was  sure  to  come  in,  and  probably  call  his 
thoughts  back  to  battles,  losses,  sorrows.  His  life  might  seem  as 
sheltered  as  any,  but  his  mind  was  full  of  eager  interest,  his 
heart  was  full  of  sympathy ;  the  sons  of  friends  and  relatives 
were  exposed,  and  suffered  and  died  for  their  country ;  his  own 
house  was  full  of  stir,  and  the  hum  of  voices  often  reached  him, 
as  he  sat  writing,  from  ladies  busy  in  other  rooms,  preparing 
comforts  for  men  in  camps  and  hospitals. 

In  the  afternoon  his  daily  walk  usually  ended  at  the  Public 
Library  or  at  Mrs.  Prescott's.  In  his  Sunday  afternoon  walks 
he  was   for  many  winters   accompanied   by  Mr.  "William  "W. 


^-  70.]  DAILY  LIFE.  445 


Greenoiigh,  who  says  that  they  included  occasional  visits  to  poor 
dwellings,  where  a  few  moments  of  kindly  talk  and  inquiry 
usually  ended  with  some  small  gift  of  money.  Sometimes,  how- 
ever, there  was  a  curious  tale,  of  imposture  discovered,  to  be  told 
at  dinner  after  one  of  these  Sunday  explorations. 

In  the  evening  a  game  of  whist  was  the  almost  essential  seda- 
tive after  exciting  days  ;  yet  there  are  well-remembered  occasions, 
when  this,  too,  was  interrupted  by  the  apparition  of  a  young  offi- 
cer joyously  come  to  say  good-by,  on  having  received  his  com- 
mission and  orders  for  the  front,  or  of  one  limping  in,  full  of 
disappointment  that  he  could  not  yet  be  allowed  to  rejoin  his 
regiment.  Thus  the  lives  of  all  were  filled  with  strange  elements, 
thoughts  and  duties  that,  by  recurrence,  acquired  a  temporary 
familiarity,  but  belong  to  no  other  than  such  an  exceptional 
period. 

During  these  years  one  of  Mr.  Ticknor's  few  positive  recrea- 
tions was  that  of  dining,  once  a  fortnight,  with  the  "  Friday  "^ 
Club,"  the  only  social  club  of  any  kind  to  which  he  ever  be- 
longed. In  1859  this  most  pleasant  dinner-club  was  formed, 
limited  to  twelve  members,  and  allowing  only  twelve  persons 
to  sit  round  its  board.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  the  party,  in 
favor  of  which  Mr.  Ticknor  made  such  an  exception  to  his  usual 
habits,  was  made  up  of  his  personal  friends,  and  of  men  whose 
conversation  rendered  their  meeting's  interestincr  and  stimulat- 
ing.*  Mr.  Ticknor  continued  a  member  of  this  club  until  1868,  _x 
when  he  resigned  on  the  ground  of  age. 

Mr.  Ticknor's  duties  and  interests  in  connection  with  the 
Zoological  Museum  at  Cambridge,  to  which,  for  the  sake  of  his 
friend  Agassiz,  he  sincerely  devoted  himself,  and  the  relations  he 
still  held  to  the  Public  Library,  occupied  him  in  congenial  ways, 
but  even  here  the  excitements  of  the  war  intruded.  He  was  "^ 
greatly  annoyed,  once,  by  an  attempt  which  was  made  to  cause 
him  to  appear  in  the  light  of  an  opponent  of  the  popular  military 

*  The  original  members  of  this  club  were  Professor  Agassiz,  Mr.  W.  Amory, 
Mr.  Sidney  Bartlett,  Hon.  B.  R.  Curtis,  Mr.  C.  C.  Felton,  I^Ir.  W.  \V.  Green- 
ough,  Mr.  G.  S.  Hillard,  i\Ir.  R.  M.  Mason,  Professor  W.  B.  Rogers,  Mr.  C. 
W.  Storey,  and  Mr.  H.  P.  Sturgis.    Mr.  Ticknor  joined  it  in  1861. 


L. 


446  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1862. 

spirit,  in  order  to  prevent  his  re-election  as  a  Trustee  of  the  Pub- 
lic Library.  The  effort  failed,  but  it  was  doubly  displeasing  to 
him  in  its  public  as  well  as  its  private  aspect;  for  he  always 
heartily  disliked  and  disapproved  the  mingling  of  political  ques- 
tions in  the  management  of  that  or  any  other  institution  for  edu- 
cation or  charity. 

In  February,  1862,  we  have  a  long  letter  to  Sir  Charles  Lyell 
almost  entirely  devoted  to  the  subject  of  the  war ;  and  in  No- 
vember of  the  same  year,  another  to  Lady  Lyell,  wholly  on  the 
matter  of  the  "  Life  of  Prescott "  ;  extracts  from  which  will  give 
an  insight  into  his  thoughts  and  occupations  at  this  time. 

To  Sir  Charles  Lyell. 

Boston,  February  11,  1862. 

My  dear  Lyell,  —  No  doubt,  I  ought  to  have  written  to  you  be- 
fore. But  I  have  had  no  heart  to  write  to  my  friends  in  Europe,  since 
our  troubles  took  their  present  form  and  proportions 

You  know  how  I  have  always  thought  and  felt  about  the  slavery 
question.  I  was  never  an  Abolitionist,  in  the  American  sense  of  the 
word,  because  I  never  have  believed  that  any  form  of  emancipation 
that  has  been  proposed  could  reach  the  enormous  difficulties  of  the 
case,  and  I  am  of  the  same  mind  now.  Slavery  is  too  monstrous  an 
evil,  as  it  exists  in  the  United  States,  to  be  reached  by  the  resources 

of  legislation I  have,  therefore,  always  desired  to  treat  the 

South  with  the  greatest  forbearance,  not  only  because  the  present  gen- 
eration is  not  responsible  for  the  curse  that  is  laid  upon  it,  but  be- 
cause I  have  felt  that  the  longer  the  contest  could  be  postponed,  the 
better  for  us.  I  have  hoped,  too,  that  in  the  inevitable  conflict  with 
free  labor,  slavery  would  go  to  the  wall.  I  remember  writing  to  you 
in  this  sense,  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  and  the  results  thus  far 
have  confirmed  the  hopes  I  then  entertained.  The  slavery  of  the 
South  has  made  the  South  poor.  The  free  labor  of  the  North  has 
made  us  rich  and  strong. 

But  all  such  hopes  and  thoughts  were  changed  by  the  violent  and 
unjustifiable  secession,  a  year  ago ;  and,  since  the  firing  of  the  first 
gim  on  Fort  Sumter,  we  have  had,  in  fact,  no  choice.  "VVe  must  fight 
it  out.  Of  the  results  I  have  never  doubted.  We  shall  beat  the 
South.  But  what  after  that  ?  I  do  not  see.  It  has  pleased  God  that, 
whether  we  are  to  be  two  nations  or  one,  we  should  live  on  the  same 


M.  70.]  CONDITION  OF  THE  COUNTRY.  447 

continent  side  by  side,  with  no  strong  natural  barrier  to  keep  us 
asunder  ;  but  now  separated  by  hatreds  which  grow  more  insane 
and  intense  every  month,  and  which  generations  will  hardly  extin- 
guish  

Our  prosperity  has  entered  largely  into  the  prosperity  of  the  world, 
and  especially  into  that  of  England  and  France.  You  feel  it  to  have 
been  so.  And  some  persons  have  been  unwise  enough  to  think  that 
your  interference  in  our  domestic  quarrel  can  do  good  to  yourselves, 
and  perhaps  to  us,  by  attempting  to  stop  this  cruel  and  wicked  war. 
It  is,  I  conceive,  a  great  mistake.  I  have  believed,  since  last  August, 
that  France  was  urging  your  government  to  some  sort  of  intervention, 
—  to  break  the  blockade  or  to  enforce  a  peace,  —  but  the  general  opin- 
ion here  has  been  that  England  has  been  the  real  mover  in  the  matter, 
thus  engendering  a  bitter  hatred  of  your  people,  which  the  unjustifi- 
able tone  of  your  papers  and  ours  increases  and  exasperates.  All  this 
is  wrong,  and  so  far  as  you  are  excited  by  it  to  intervention,  it  is  most 
unhappy  and  portentous.  The  temptation,  no  doubt,  is  strong.  It 
almost  always  is  in  the  case  of  civil  wars,  which,  from  their  very  na- 
ture, invite  interested  and  neighboring  nations  to  interfere.  But  how 
rarely  has  good  come  to  anybody  from  such  interference.  In  the 
present  instance  I  am  satisfied  that  it  would  only  exasperate  us,  and 
lead  to  desperate  measures 

As  to  the  present  comparative  condition  of  North  and  South,  there 
can  be  no  question.  At  Richmond,  and  elsewhere  beyond  the  Poto- 
mac, gold  is  at  forty  per  cent  premium,  coffee  and  tea  at  four  or  five 

prices,  salt  as  dear Beef  and  bread  they  have  in  abundance, 

and  so  resolute  and  embittered  are  they,  that  they  seem  content  with 
this.  But  it  cannot  be.  The  women,  I  hear,  in  a  large  part  of  the 
South,  will  not  speak  to  men  who  stay  at  home  from  the  army  with- 
out ob\qous  and  sufficient  cause.  But  the  suffering  is  great,  however 
the  proud  spirit  may  bear  up  against  it,  and  they  must  yield,  unless, 
what  is  all  but  incredible,  they  should  speedily  gain  great  military 
success 

At  the  North  the  state  of  things  is  very  different.     There  is  no 

perceptible  increase  of  poverty Nor  is  anybodv  disheartened. 

If  you  were  here  you  would  see  little  change  in  our  modes  of  life,  ex- 
cept that  we  are  all  busy  and  in  earnest  about  the  war.*  ....  This, 

*  September  7,  1862,  he  wrote  to  his  eldest  daxigliter,  then  at  New'port :  "  I 
was  very  glad  to  see  your  name  on  the  printed  paper  you  sent  yesterday.  Give 
what  money  you  think  best,  to  the  ladies  with  whom  you  are  associated,  and 
look  to  me  to  make  it  good.    I  was  never  so  much  in  earnest  about  the  war  as 


448  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1862. 

however,  is  not  to  last.  The  government  must  either  impose  taxes 
heavy  enough  to  sustain  its  credit,  as  it  ought  to  have  done  long  ago, 
and  then  our  incomes  will  all  feel  it,  or  it  must  rush  into  a  paper  cur- 
rency, and  then,  of  course,  prices  must  rise  in  proportion,  and  the 
whole  end  in  disaster 

One  thing,  however,  is  certain.  We  are  well  off  now.  "We  were,  I 
think,  never  so  rich,  and  never  had  so  much  gold  stored  away  for 
a  specie  basis.  It  is,  therefore,  owing  to  the  unwise  course  of  the 
Government  that  the  Treasury  and  the  banks  have  suspended  their 
specie  payments  ;  or,  in  other  words,  it  is  owing  to  the  incompetency 

and  corruption  of  the  men  at  Washington The  people  are 

ready  and  willing  to  do  their  part.  The  people's  agents  are  incom- 
petent  

A  country  that  has  shown  the  resources  and  spirit  of  the  North  — 
however  they  may  have  been  misused,  and  may  continue  to  be  — 
cannot  be  ruined  by  a  year  or  two  of  adverse  fortune,  or  even  more. 
Changed  it  will  be,  how,  or  how  much,  I  cannot  guess,  nor  do  I  find 
anybody  worth  listening  to  that  can  tell  me.  But  we  are  young  and 
full  of  life.  Diseases  that  destroy  the  old  are  cast  off  by  the  vigor  of 
youth  ;  and,  though  I  may  not  live  to  see  it,  we  shall  again  be  strong 
and  have  an  honored  place  among  the  nations.  For  the  South  I  have 
no  vaticinations.  The  blackness  of  thick  darkness  rests  upon  them, 
and  they  deserve  all  they  will  suffer.  I  admit  that  a  portion  of  the 
North,  and  sometimes  the  whole  North,  has  been  very  unjust  to  them. 
....  But  it  is  all  no  justification  of  civil  war It  is  the  un- 
pardonable sin  in  a  really  free  State. 

You  will,  perhaps,  think  me  shabby  if  I  stop  without  saying  any- 
thing about  the  Trent  affair,  and  so  I  may  as  well  make  a  clean 
breast  of  it.  Except  Everett,  all  the  persons  hereabout  in  whose 
judgment  I  place  confidence  believed  from  the  first  that  we  had  no 
case.     I  was  fully  of  that  mind 

As  to  the  complaint  about  our  closing  up  harbors,  we  are  not  very 
anxious.  It  is  a  harsh  measure,  but  there  are  precedents  enough  for 
it,  —  more  than  there  ought  to  be.  But  two  will  fully  sustain  the 
mere  right.  By  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  you  stipulated  not  only  for 
the  destruction  of  the  fortifications  of  Dunkirk,  but  for  filling  up  the 
port ;  and  in  1777  (I  think  it  was  that  year)  you  destroyed  the  en- 
trance to  Savannah,  so  that  appropriations  were  made,  not  many 
years  ago,  by  our  Congress,  to  remove  the  obstructions,  although  the 

I  have  "been  for  the  last  week,  when  the  very  atmosphere  has  been  full  of  the 
spirit  of  change  and  trouble." 


M  71.]  PORTRAITS  OF  MR.   PRESCOTT.  449 


river,  there,  has  cut  for  itself  a  new  cliaiinel.     I  do  not  tliink  that  we 
have  closed  any  but  the  minor  and  more  shallow  channels  to  any  Lar- 

bor,  leaving  the  more  important  to  be  watched  Ijy  the  blockade 

However,  if  England  and  France  want  a  pretext  for  interfering  with 
us,  perhaps  this  will  do  as  well  as  any  other.     No  doubt  the  *'  Times," 

at  least,  will  be  satisfied  with  it 

Next  week  I  intend  to  send  you  some  photographs  of  Prescott,  and 
ask  you  and  Lady  Lyell  to  see  that  they  are  properly  engraved  for 
my  Life  of  him.  I  shall  not  print  —  though  any  time  in  the  last  year 
I  could  soon  have  been  ready  —  until  people  begin  to  read  something 

beside  newspapers I  enclose  you  two  or  three  scraps  from 

our  papers  of  last  evening  and  this  morning.     They  are  a  fair  speci- 
men of  our  daily  food,  —  bitter  ashes 

Yours  always, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

Boston,  November  25,  1862. 

My  dear  Lady  Lyell, — "We  have  not,  until  within  a  few  days, 
been  able  to  settle  anything  about  the  beautiful  engravings  you  sent 
us,*  or  I  should  earlier  have  written  to  acknowledge  your  ever-faith- 
ful kindness.  Nothing  certainly  could  have  been  more  judicious  than 
the  mode  you  took  for  getting  the  best  that  could  be  had,  and  your 
success  has  been  greater  than  could  reasonably  have  been  expected,  — 
so  difficult  or  impossible  is  it,  in  a  case  like  this,  to  satisfy  the  recol- 
lections of  those  who  feel  that  they  were  always  the  nearest  and  dear- 
est, and  that  in  consequence  a  sort  of  responsibility  rests  on  them, 
which  is  not  the  less  sensitive  nor  the  less  to  be  regarded,  because  it 
is  not  quite  reasonable 

All  of  us  feel  truly  grateful  to  you  and  Sir  Charles  for  the  thought- 
ful and  safe  way  in  which  you  went  about  the  labor  of  love  we  ven- 
tured to  ask  from  you.  For  myself,  I  have  no  idea,  if  all  who  have 
been  called  to  counsel  about  it  had  been  in  London  when  you  took 
your  measures  to  get  the  engravings  made,  that  we  should  have  done 
differently  from  what  you  yourself  did.  Or,  if  we  had,  we  should 
not,  I  am  persuaded,  have  done  so  well. 

The  Life,  as  you  know,  has  been  finished  since  early  last  spring,  and 
lately  I  have  been  looking  it  over  with  his  very  near  friend,  Mr.  W. 
H.  Gardiner,  who,  you  may  remember,  was  his  executor.  Very  likely 
I  shall  put  it  to  press  this  winter.     There  seems  no  use  in  waiting. 

*  One  English  engraving  was  accepted,  that  by  Holl,  of  the  portrait  wluch 

faces  the  title-page. 

cc 


450  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1864. 

If  such  tilings  are  postponed  till  the  end  of  the  war,  and  till  the  heal- 
ing influences  of  peace  shall  have  brought  the  minds  of  men  to  a 
tolerable  degree  of  tranquillity,  we  may  wait  till  the  Greek  Calends. 
I  see  no  light  yet  in  the  horizon. 

In  the  opening  days  of  1864,  the  first  handsome  quarto  edi- 
tion of  the  "  Life  of  Prescott "  appeared,  and  was  seized  with 
avidity  by  the  public.  Mr.  Ticknor  gave  away  an  unusual  num- 
ber of  copies,  and,  when  some  allusion  to  this  by  his  daughter 
gave  him  a  natural  opportunity  for  saying  it,  he  told  her  that  he 
never  meant  to  have  any  profit  to  himself  from  that  book.  It 
was  evidently  too  near  his  heart  for  him  to  coin  it  into  money. 

The  merits  of  this  Memoir  have  been  fully  recognized.  Its 
genial  style  and  the  simple  flow  of  the  narrative  are  colored  w^ith 
a  warm  sense  of  the  charms  of  Mr.  Prescott's  character,  as  well 
as  a  frank  admission  of  those  slight  weaknesses  which,  by  their 
peculiar  flavor,  only  made  him  the  more  beloved  by  his  friends. 
The  lesson  taught  by  that  life  of  voluntary  labor  and  of  stern 
self-control,  ingrafted  on  a  facile,  ease-loving  nature,  is  kept 
steadily  in  view  from  first  to  last,  while  the  picture  of  an  heroic 
struggle  against  an  ever-present  infirmity,  which  might  otherwise 
have  been  too  sombre,  is  brightened  by  the  happy  use  of  almost 
trivial  details.  His  heart  went  with  his  pen,  and  the  narrative 
glows  with  the  warmth  of  a  strong  personal  affection,  which  gives 
it  a  charm  that  the  best  taste,  the  soundest  judgment,  and  the 
most  finished  literary  skill  would  not  alone  have  secured. 

A  few  extracts  from  letters  written  by  Mr.  Ticknor  to  accom- 
pany presentation  copies,  and  from  letters  which  he  received  in 
relation  to  the  Memoir,  will  close  this  subject. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  January  18,  1864. 

My  dear  Lord  Carlisle,*  —  I  have  desired  Triibner  &  Co.  to 
send  you  a  copy  of  the  "  Life  of  Prescott,"  just  published How- 
ever imperfect  my  part  of  it  may  be,  I  think  you  will  desire  to  see  it 
for  the  sake  of  its  subject. 

That  it  is  a  truthful  portrait  of  our  friend  seems  to  be  admitted  by 
those  who  knew  him  best.     Whether  there  is  life  in  the  likeness  I 

*  This  letter  is  printed  from  a  rough  draft. 


JR.  72.]        LETTER  FROM  LORD  CARLISLE.  451 


know  not,  but  I  hope  there  is.  I  do  not  Relieve  that  there  is  flattery 
in  it,  or  concealment,  for  who  is  there  that  I  shouhl  seek  to  Hatter 
by  overpraise  of  him,  and  what  was  there  in  his  life  or  character  that 
anybody  should  desire  to  conceal  ? 

About  your  own  relations  with  him,  I  suppose  I  can  hardly  have 
been  mistaken.  I  know  how  his  heart  turned  to  you  hoin  the  very 
first.  I  know  how,  in  his  little  study  in  Bedford  Street,  he  showed 
you  his  private  memoranda  about  his  religious  in(|uiries  and  convic- 
tions, for  he  told  me  of  it  at  the  time,  and  it  was  a  proof  of  his  inti- 
mate confidence  which  I  think  he  never  gave  to  anybody  Ijut  to  his 
wife,  to  you,  and  to  me  ;  and  to  me  very  rarely,  although  I  saw  him 
so  constantly  and  we  exchanged  our  thoughts  so  freely.  But  you 
will  judge  of  this,  as  you  will  of  all  else  ;  and  if  you  are  willing  to 
give  me  your  opinion  of  the  book,  or  of  any  part  of  it,  I  shall  be 
grateful  for  it. 

In  any  event,  my  dear  Lord  Carlisle,  believe  me, 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

In  answer  to  this  Lord  Carlisle  writes  :  — 

Dublin  Castle,  March  17,  1864. 

My  dear  Mr.  Ticknor,  —  I  fear  you  must  have  thought  that  my 
acknowledgments  of  your  most  kind  letter  and  thrice  welcome  vol- 
ume come  to  you  very  tardily  ;  but  I  was  determined  not  to  leave  a 
line  unread  before  I  wrote,  and  notwithstanding  all  the  pleasure  of 
the  occupation,  the  many  distractions  which  beset  me  here  have  not 
allowed  it  to  be  as  rapid  as  would  have  been  both  natural  and 
agreeable.  My  verdict  is  one  of  unalloyed  approval.  I  think  your 
memorial  of  our  dear  and  honored  friend  is  simple,  comjtlete,  unaf- 
fected, and  thus  entirely  suited  to  the  character  and  qualities  of  its 
subject.  How  much  it  recalls  to  me  that  "  sunny  "  countenance,  pure 
heart,  placid  and  blameless  life.  I  think  I  can  rely  on  myself,  that  I 
am  not  bribed  into  my  admiration  by  the  considerate  manner  in  which 
I  have  been  treated  through  your  work,  as  I  can  assure  you  I  consider 
that  you  have  put  no  mean  feather  in  my  cap  by  exhibiting  me  to  the 
world  as  one  who  had  won  the  regard  of  Prescott 

Pray  give  my  very  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Ticknor 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Mr.  Ticknor, 

Your  most  obliged  and  faithful 

Carlisle. 


452  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1864. 


An  old  friend  of  Mr.  Prescott,  Mr.  Theophilus  Parsons,  says  :  — 

Let  me  confess  at  once,  you  have  surprised  me  most  agreeably. 

Of  course  I  knew  that  no  mere  literary  excellence  would  he  wanting. 
But  I  knew,  also,  that  you  were  obliged  to  rely  mainly  on  your  long, 
close,  and  unreserved  friendship  with  Prescott  as  the  means  of  under- 
standing him  —  the  events  of  his  life  and  their  bearing  on  his  charac- 
ter —  perfectly.  And  yet  it  was  necessary  to  avoid  the  influence  of 
this  very  friendship,  so  far  as  it  tended  to  make  you  present  him  too 
favorably  ;  and  then  to  avoid,  with  equal  care,  resisting  this  influence 
so  far  as  to  render  your  presentation  of  him  cold  and  cheerless. 

To  me  it  seemed  that  this  task  was,  to  the  last  degree,  difficult,  — 
too  difficult.     But  you  have  conquered  the  difficulty  perfectly 

I  will  not  deny  that  my  relations  with  Prescott  made  me  sensitive, 
and  fastidious  as  to  the  character  of  that  which  must  be  his  perma- 
nent memorial.  But  I  am  satisfied.  You  have  done  him  no  more 
than  justice,  but  that  justice  is  ample  and  complete. 

On  the  other  hand,  a  literary  man,  who  had  not  known  Pres- 
cott, writes  thus  :  — 

From  J.  E.  Chorley. 

76  Chester  Square,  Pimlico,  February  24, 1864. 

My  dear  Ticknor,  —  ....  I  congratulate  you  on  having  so  paid 
a  tribute  of  friendship,  as  to  make  at  the  same  time  a  welcome  addi- 
tion to  literature The  halo  round  the  name  of  a  distinguished 

author  would  not,  of  itself,  suffice  to  maintain  the  attraction  of  a 
story  the  topics  of  which  are  few,  and  nearly  uniform  in  their  respec- 
tive developments,  from  the  critical  period  at  which  the  moral  and 
literary  career  of  your  friend  was  determined  by  a  mere  accident, 
....  and  to  give  life,  and  a  certain  variety  to  what  is  essentially 
monotonous,  is  a  task  that  an  able  pen  could  not  have  accomplished 
without  a  pious  hand  to  guide  it. 

....  The  character  portrayed  is  a  very  peculiar  one,  above  all,  I 
think,  in  its  mixture  of  qualities  seldom  found  in  company  with  each 
other,  and  still  more  rarely  admitting,  when  they  do  meet,  of  any 
productive  union  or  auspicious  progress.  It  is  remarkable  how  much 
of  wholesome  industry  was  evolved  from  a  source  intrinsically  mor- 
bid ;  and  this,  too,  in  a  character  which,  from  the  beginning,  seems 
to  have  had  a  tendency  to  that  kind  of  self-inspection  which  infirm 
health  is  apt  to  cherish  until  it  becomes  a  positive  disease.     Mr.  Pres- 


M.  72.]  LETTER  FROM  MR.  BANCROFT.  453 


cott  seems  to  have  been  rescued  from  such  an  extremity  by  the  aid  of 
a  genial  temperament,  and  it  is  curious  to  observe  how,  in  him,  this  and 
other  elements,  which  of  themselves  are  signs  of  weakness  and  per- 
version, were  adjusted  and  brought  into  harmony  with  the  better  side 
of  his  nature.  The  contrast  and  the  composition  are  such  as,  I  think, 
have  rarely  been  witnessed  elsewhere. 

There  is  one  considerable  underpart  in  the  story,  obvious,  indeed, 
to  any  attentive  eye,  which,  however,  perhaps  deserved  a  more  prom- 
inent notice.  Had  ^Mr.  Prescott  been  a  poor  man,  such  a  solution  as 
he  made  of  a  difficult  problem  would  have  been  impossible.  That  he 
made  good  use  of  his  advantages  is  his  praise  ;  but  in  having  them  he 
owed  much  to  fortune. 

Nor  was  he  less  fortunate,  surely,  in  his  friends.  I  suppose  no  man 
of  letters  ever  received  more  zealous  and  constant  aid  (of  a  kind  which 
no  money  can  procure)  in  the  promotion  of  his  work.  This  circum- 
stance, indeed,  reflects  honor  on  both  sides  ;  for  one  whom  all  love  to 
help  must  be  one  who  merits  their  love.  Nor  can  those  who  knew 
him  not  better  learn  what  he  must  have  been  than  by  seeing  the  im- 
pression he  made  on  those  to  whom  he  was  kno^vm 

Yours  very  afi"ectionately, 

J.  K.  Chorley. 

From  Hon.  George  Bancroft. 

New  York,  Sunday  Evening. 
My  dear  Mr.  Ticknor,  —  Your  splendid  New  Year's  gift  reached 
me  last  evening  in  time  to  dip  into  it  deeply  before  going  to  bed. 
This  morning  I  rose  before  any  one  else  in  the  house,  lighted  my  o^^^l 
fire,  and  gave  the  quiet  hours  of  a  long  morning  to  the  life  of  our 
friend.  I  expected  a  great  deal,  a  very  great  deal  from  you  ;  and  you 
have  far  surpassed  my  expectation.  You  have  given  Prescott  as  he 
was,  leaving  no  part  of  his  character  unportrayed.  He  was  in  life 
and  in  himself  greater  than  his  books,  and  you  have  shown  him  so. 
I  find  nothing  omitted,  nothing  remissly  done,  and  nothing  overdone. 
I  had  feared  that  the  uniformity  of  his  life  would  cut  oft'  from  your 
narrative  the  resources  of  novelty  and  variety  and  stirring  interest ; 
and  here,  in  the  inward  struggles  of  his  mind,  and  his  struggles  with 
outward  trials,  you  have  brought  out  a  more  beautiful  and  attractive 
picture  than  if  you  had  had  to  describe  the  escapes  of  a  hero  or  the 
perils  of  an  adventurer.  "Well  as  I  knew  Prescott,  you  have  raised 
my  conception  of  his  fortitude,  and  self-control,  and  consciously  noble 


454  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1864 


ambition.  Your  volume  is  a  sermon  to  the  young  and  a  refreshment 
to  the  old,  the  best  monument  that  one  man  of  letters  ever  reared  to 
his  friendship  for  another  ;  and  you  have  done  your  part  so  well, 
that,  in  raising  a  monument  to  Prescott,  you  have  constructed  an  im- 
perishable one  for  yourself.  So  you  see  how  many  causes  I  have  to 
thank  you. 

I  remain,  my  dear  Mr.  Ticknor,  with  sincere  regard, 

Yours, 

Geo.  Bancroft. 

"What  a  fortunate  thing  it  is  for  the  country  that  its  two  favorite 
authors,  Prescott  and  Washington  Irving,  had  each  a  nature  so  pure 
and  generous.  Prescott's  example  as  a  man  will  have  an  influence,  the 
most  chastening  and  the  most  benign,  on  our  young  men  of  coming 
generations.  You  have  gained  a  triumph  in  letters  ;  but  I  think  you 
are  still  more  to  be  congratulated  in  having  been  able  to  set  before  our 
people  every  feature  and  form  of  his  mind,  as  a  model  of  integrity  and 
a  persevering,  manly,  successful  war  against  difficulties  which  would 
have  overwhelmed  the  resolution  of  many  of  the  most  buoyant  and 
the  most  strong.    You  see  I  do  not  know  where  to  stop. 

To  Kev.  Francis  Wayland,  D.  D. 

March'  9,  1864. 

My  dear  Dr.  Wayland,  —  It  can,  I  trust,  hardly  be  needful,  on 
your  account,  to  tell  you  that  your  letter  about  the  "  Life  of  Prescott " 
gave  me  great  pleasure.  I  hope  that  you  knew  that  it  would  when 
you  wrote  it.  But  on  my  own  account  it  is  quite  necessary  that  I 
should  do  so,  for  if  I  were  not  to  thank  you  I  should  feel  that  I  had 
been  guilty  of  a  wrongful  omission.  Let  me  do  it,  then,  very  heartily, 
and  somewhat  humbly  :  very  heartily,  because  I  am  grateful  that  you 
accept  the  view  of  my  friend's  character  such  as  I  have  presented  it ; 
and  very  humbly,  because  I  cannot  conscientiously  accept  most  of  the 
words  of  praise  you  so  kindly  send  me.  I  wish  I  could.  I  should 
then  feel  that  I  have  done,  for  Prescott's  character  and  example,  what 
the  world  had  a  right  to  claim  from  his  biographer.  But  I  must  con- 
tent myself  with  thinking  that  I  have  done  the  best  I  could. 

One  thing  I  doubt  not  that  you  must  have  seen,  —  I  was  more  in- 
terested about  the  man  than  about  the  author.  The  author,  I  think, 
can  take  care  of  himself  ;  and  whether  he  can  or  not,  he  has  put  hun- 
self  into  the  hands  of  the  world  for  judgment,  and  the  world  never 
fails  to  take  jurisdiction  in  such  cases.     But  the  manf  laj  friend,  was 


M.  72.]  PRESCOTT'S  HISTORIES.  455 

put  into  my  hands  especially  and  trustingly.  The  difference  of  the 
two  cases  is,  therefore,  great,  and  I  felt  it  from  the  outset. 

I  do  not  claim,  nor  can  any  man  now  claim,  to  be  the  final  judge  of 
Prescott's  histories.  No  doubt,  it  is  possible  that  in  some  future  time 
different  views  may  prevail  respecting  one  or  another  of  the  portions 
of  the  world's  affairs  to  which  he  devoted  himself.  Neither  Gillies, 
nor  Clavier,  nor  Mitford,  nor  Ottfried  Miiller  could  finally  settle  the 
History  of  Greece,  though  the  materials  for  it  had  been  ripening  a 
thousand  years  in  the  minds  of  statesmen  and  scholars  ;  and  I  dare 
Bay  that  Grote  has  not  done  it,  though  he  has  stood  on  the  shoulders 
of  all  of  them.  The  same  thing  may  happen  about  the  times  of  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella,  and  about  the  Conquest  of  Mexico.  I  see  no 
signs  of  it  at  present,  and  I  do  not  really  think  it  will  ever  happen. 
But  if  it  should,  those  books  of  Prescott's  will  no  more  be  forgotten, 
or  neglected,  than  Herodotus,  or  Thucydides,  or  Plutarch,  or  Mitford, 
or  Grote.  Nobody  can  hereafter  touch  the  subjects  to  which  they  are 
devoted  without  referring  to  them,  and  doing  it  with  respect  and  ad- 
miration. 

But  the  man  himself  is  in  many  important  senses  separate  from  all 
this.  I  knew  him  well,  and  I  claim  my  portrait  of  him  to  be  truth- 
ful. It  may  be  ever  so  imperfectly  or  coarsely  finished,  but  the  great 
lines  are  right,  and  the  likeness  is  there.  Moreover,  it  is  not  flattered  ; 
I  have  put  in  the  wart.  I  claim,  therefore,  to  have  it  received  as  the 
vera  effigies.  Whether  the  world  will  admit  the  claim,  time  must  de- 
cide. But  that  spectators  like  you  —  the  best  and  fairest  of  experts 
—  have  received  it  as  such,  is  greatly  gratifying  to  me.  Again,  there- 
fore, I  thank  you. 

To  Wm.  Picard,  Esq.,  Cadiz. 

Boston,  May  10,  1864. 

My  dear  Mr.  Picard,  —  I  am  under  great  obligations  to  you  for 

your  three  kind  and  interesting  letters I  should  have  written 

as  soon  as  the  first  came  to  hand,  but  I  was  unwell,  and  very  anxious 
about  Mrs.  Dexter,  who  was  dangerously  ill  for  a  short  time.  But, 
thank  God,  she  is  much  better,  and  I  am  nearly  well  ;*  as  well  as  a 
man  has  a  right  to  be  who  is  nearly  seventy-three  years  old 

You  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  the  edition  de  luxe  of  the  "  Life         1 
of  Prescott  " — two  thousand  copies  —  is  already  sold  ;  that  another  of 
five  hundred  copies  is  preparing  as  fast  as  possible  ;  and  that,  mean- 
time, two  other  editions,  one  in  8vo  of  fifteen  hundred  copies,  and 


456  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1862. 

( one  in  ISmo,  two  thousand,  are  out  and  in  good  request.     It  is  a 

great  pleasure  to  me  that  the  view  I  have  given  of  my  friend  —  I 
mean  the  view  of  him.  as  greater  and  better  than  his  hooks  —  is  so 
generally  accepted  as  I  understand  that  it  is. 

Our  war  goes  on  with  increasing  ferocity.  There  has  been  terrible 
fighting  between  the  Rapidan  and  Richmond,  since  Thursday,  with 
considerable  advantage  to  our  side,  but  nothing  yet  (noon,  Tuesday, 
May  10)  absolutely  decisive  of  the  fate  of  the  city.  Elsewhere,  espe- 
cially in  Louisiana,  we  have  sustained  losses.  So  things  look  as 
dark  as  ever.  I  still  believe,  however,  that  we  shall  gain  the  great 
battles,  and  defeat  the  great  armies  of  the  enemy.  But  after  that,  I 
fear,  will  begin  our  greatest  difficulties.  Meantime,  luxury  reigns  as 
it  never  did  before,  in  Boston,  New  York,  and  through  the  North  gen- 
erally. 

With  kindest  regards  from  all  of  us  to  all  of  your  house,  I  remain, 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


M.  71.]  OLD  AGE.  457 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

1863  to  imQ.  — Letters  to  G,  T.  Curtis,  Sir  C.  Lyell,  Sir  E.  Head,  R. 
H.  Gardiner,  Friend  B.  B.  Wiffen,  General  Thayer,  C.  F.  Bradford, 
Professor  Louis  Agassiz,  Lady  Cranworth.  —  Death  of  Mr,  Everett. 

DUEI^G  the  period  of  old  age,  upon  which  Mr.  Ticknor  had 
now  entered,  he  led  a  tranquil,  simple  life,  adapted  to  his 
condition,  and  tilled  with  serene  and  appropriate  enjoyments. 
He  had  always  made  friends  among  the  young,  and  his  house 
continued  to  be  the  resort  of  many  persons  of  all  ages,  who  con- 
tributed to  his  pleasure  by  their  society.  The  last  five  summers 
of  his  life  he  passed  in  Brookline,  one  of  the  prettiest  spots 
among  the  charming  environs  of  Boston,  where  he  took  a  pleas- 
ant cottage,  so  situated  that  he  had  long-tried  friends  close 
around  him,  and,  through  private  garden-walks,  could  reach 
these  and  other  younger  neighbors,  who  welcomed  him  with 
warm  and  cheerful  greetings.  These  summer  days  were  truly 
days  of  ease,  when  books  and  correspondence,  interchange  of 
informal  visits,  and  daily  drives  made  up  a  goodly  sum  of 
rational  satisfaction. 

His  letters  grew  fewer  and  shorter ;  but  it  will  be  seen  in  the 
remaining  selection  that  he  still  wrote  many,  and  often  on  top- 
ics both  interesting  and  various.  The  first  of  these,  by  their 
dates,  retrace  a  little  the  steps  already  trod  ;  but  a  few  pages 
will  bring  us  again  to  the  point  we  lately  left. 

* 

To  George  T.  Curtis,  New  York. 

Boston,  February  5,  1863. 
My  dear  George,  —  I  want  to  know  how  you  are,  and  how  you 
get  en,  one  and  all,  great  and  small,  for  it  is  some  time  since  I  have 
heard.     The  Judge,  I  suppose,  has  been  with  you  for  a  week,  and  we 

VOL.  II.  20 


458  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1863. 

hope  to  see  him  soon.  No  doubt  he  will  tell  us  ahout  you.  But  I 
should  like  to  know  what  you  have  to  say,  for  yourself  and  your 
home. 

We  are  all  well,  —  uncommonly  so.  I  think  —  but  am  not  sure 
—  that  all  four  of  us,  meaning  my  wife,  Anna,  and  Lizzie,  shall 
go  to  Everett's  to-night,  a  thing  the  like  of  which  all  of  us  have 
not  done  together,  I  suppose,  for  some  years.  But  it  is  in  honor  of 
McClellan,  and  so  we  all  screw  our  courage  to  the  sticking-place 
and  go. 

His  visit  here  has  gone  off  as  well  as  could  be.  I  have  dined  with 
him  twice,  lunched  with  him  once,  and  met  him  less  seriously  three 
or  four  times  besides.  He  has  always  borne  himself  becomingly. 
His  cheerful  equanimity  is  absolute  and  universal.  I  think  if  he 
were  to-morrow  to  go  back  to  his  railroad  in  Illinois,  or  to  the  head 
of  the  armies,  his  manner  would  be  just  the  same,  and  his  spirits  un- 
touched by  either  emergency.  He  has  not  suffered  himself  to  make 
a  speech  since  he  came  here,  and,  strange  to  say,  seems  to  have  no 
itching  to  do  it,  and  yet  the  people  have  run  after  him  everywhere 
all  the  same.  He  told  me  that  he  had  never  been  so  received  in 
any  other  city  ;  and  his  principal  aid,  Colonel  AYright,  told  me  the 
same  thing.  Crowds  run  after  his  carriage,  and  stop  and  wait  at 
the  doors  where  he  alights  to  ^^[sit,  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  him  as  he 
goes  in  and  out ;  and  as  for  the  multitude  that  gathered  at  the 
Tremont  House  the  day  he  professed  "  to  receive,"  I  am  sure  I  saw 
nearer  ten  thousand  than  five  waiting  for  a  possible  chance.  The 
street  was  crowded  from  School  Street  to  Bromfield  Street.  And 
all  this  not  only  without  any  incitement  from  the  gentlemen  who 
brought  him  here,  but  much  of  it  accepted  by  them  very  anxiously. 
Indeed,  no  ten  or  twenty  men  could  have  got  up  such  a  movement. 
It  has  come  right  up  from  the  people  themselves,  warm,  hearty, 
spontaneous. 

Do  not,  however,  misunderstand  me.  I  do  not  suppose  that  such 
a  movement  tends  either  to  restore  him  to  the  head  of  the  armies, 
or  to  make  him  President  of  the  United  States.  It  is  simply  a  grace- 
ful tribute  to  his  services,  and  it  has  been  cordially  paid,  —  not 
forgetting,  at  the  same  time,  that  it  damages  the  men  who  have 
treated  him  so  ill.  He  does  not  conceal  that  he  is  much  gratified 
■with  it ;  his  wife  and  his  aids  admit  plenary  astonishment,  as  well 
as  pleasure.  .  .  ,  , 

Yours  always, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


M.  71.]  REPRESENTATION  OF   MINORITIES.  459 

To  George  T.  Curtis. 

Boston,  March  30,  1863. 

I  send  you  l)y  this  mail  a  pamphlet  which  I  want  you  to  read,  and 
tell  me  in  a  few  general  words  what  you  think  of  it.  Some  very  sen- 
sible people  believe  its  fundamental  idea  important  and  practicable. 
....  Perhaps  you  know  its  author,  —  Fisher  of  Philadelphia,  grad- 
uated at  Cambridge  in  1825,  —  a  man  of  large  fortune,  conscientious, 
little  accustomed  to  writing,  as  you  will  see  by  his  style  and  modes 
of  discussion,  but  determined  to  think  for  himself,  and  willing,  I  dare 
say,  to  make  sacrifices  to  his  convictions  in  action,  if  needful.  He 
explained  his  plan,  for  representation  by  totalities,  to  me  in  Paris 
in  1857  ;  but  I  thought  nothing  more  about  it  until  he  was  here 
a  few  weeks  ago  and  told  me  he  should  soon  print  on  the  sub- 
ject. His  system,  if  carried  into  real,  faithful  efiect,  would,  no 
doubt,  break  up  the  power  of  caucuses,  and  much  impair  the  in- 
fluence of  demagogues  ;  but  the  question  is  whether  the  people  will 
not,  after  all,  prefer  the  false  gods  they  have  so  long  worshipped. 
In  other  words,  can  they  be  got  out  of  the  old,  deep  ruts  in  which 
they  have  been  so  long  misled.  It  seems  to  me  as  if,  like  ]\Iac- 
beth,  we  must  wade  over  whatever  may  be  the  cost  or  the  conse- 
quences. 

And  where  are  we  going  to,  when  we  get  to  the  other  side  without 

a  Constitution  ?    says  we  are  going  to  the  D — 1  as  fast  as  we 

can,  and  ought  to  be  very  grateful  that  we  have  got  a  D — 1  to  go  to. 
That  is  his  fashion  of  expressing  the  state  of  things.  How  do  you 
express  it  in  New  York  ?  .  .  .  .  Many  people  are  glad  that  the  Presi- 
dent is  substantially  made  an  irresponsible  Dictator,  though  they 
have  no  confidence  in  him  or  his  advisers  ;  arguing  that,  if  they  are 
not  sustained  until  victories  enough  are  won  to  tide  the  present 
forms  of  our  government  over  to  another  administration  of  its  af- 
fairs, we  shall  go  utterly  to  pieces  now  ;  chaos  will  come  again 
now.  But,  suppose  we  fail  of  the  victories,  or,  on  the  other  hand, 
suppose  we  get  them,  and  the  dictatorship  should  be  continued,  in 
military  forms,  by  the  silent  consent  of  a  people  too  grateful  for 
success  and  salvation,  what  then?  Just  now,  men  who  hold  the 
opinions  referred  to  seem  to  have  reached  the  point  suggested  by 
Macaulay,  that  there  are  times  when  liberty  must  be  given  up  to 
save  society.  But  are  we  called  to  this  terribly  stem  sacrifice  by  the 
present  state  of  things  ?  .  .  .  , 


460  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1863. 

To  Sir  Charles  Lyell. 

Boston,  March  31,  1863. 

My  dear  Lyell,  —  I  have  not  yet  finished  your  book  about  the 
antiquity  of  all  of  us,  but  I  cannot  longer  delay  thanking  you  for  it. 
I  have  enjoyed  it  so  far  very  much,  and  shall,  no  doubt,  to  the  end. 
True,  my  ignorance  prevents  my  opinion  from  being  worth  a  button  ; 
but  then,  even  in  this  view  of  the  matter,  I  represent  a  large  fraction 
of  your  readers,  and  may  therefore  assume  tliat  the  pleasure  I  have 
had  has  been  shared  by  many.  We  may,  at  least,  feel  sure  that  in 
many  most  important  points  we  know  how  far  geology  has  got  on. 

The  parts  that  have  thus  far  most  interested  me  relate  to  those 
lacustrine  people,  a  feeble  folk,  I  suppose,  like  the  conies  in  Scripture, 
but  nearer  to  us,  by  a  good  deal,  than  the  people  who  made  the  arrow- 
heads and  hatchets  in  the  valley  of  the  Somme,  so  that  I  really  am 
more  curious  about  them.  Next  after  your  account  of  these  lacus- 
trines,  I  have  been  most  interested  about  the  history  of  the  origin 
and  development  of  Darwin's  theory,  concerning  which  I  suppose 
more  is  to  follow,  which  I  have  not  yet  reached.  But  then  your  stjde 
is  so  crystal  clear  and  so  befitting  your  subject,  that  I  read  all  with 
interest.     Only,  from  ignorance,  I  have  to  read  slow. 

The  "  Memoirs  of  Miles  Byrne,"  which  came,  I  suppose,  from  you 
or  from  Lady  Lyell,  at  the  same  time,  is  as  diff"erent  from  your  book 
as  one  book  can  well  be  from  another.  Of  this,  too,  I  have  read  only 
the  larger  half,  and  am  still  going  on  with  it.  It  seems  to  have, 
everywhere,  the  impress  of  truth  upon  it,  and  so  it  must  be  among 
the  safe  memoires  pour  servir.  But  then  the  infinite  details,  which  con- 
tribute to  give  it  this  character,  are  very  confusing.  A  man  ought  to 
know  the  toiDography  of  the  parts  of  Ireland  to  which  it  refers,  as  he 
knows  that  of  his  own  village,  and  have  heard  all  about  its  people 
and  their  nicknames.  To  one  conclusion,  however,  we  fairly  come, 
from  the  first  volume  of  the  brave  old  soldier,  and  that  is  the  one  he 
would  be  most  anxious  about ;  I  mean,  how  cruelly  and  wickedly  the 
Irish  of  that  period  were  treated  by  the  British  government. 

Much  of  what  I  have  read  comes  to  me  with  great  force,  now  that 
we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  civil  war  ourselves.     How  we  get  on  you  can 

judge  as  well  as  we,  perhaps  better Keep  your  eyes  on  the 

Mississippi,  and  see  if  we  soon  clear  out  that  great  thoroughfare,  and 
divide  and  break  the  resources  of  the  Confederacy.  This  is  the  first 
and  vital  conflict,  and  I  watch  everything  relating  to  it,  daily,  with 
intense  anxiety.      The  Administration  has  received  from  Congress 


M.  71.]  CHARACTER  OF  SIR  GEORGE  LEWIS.  4G1 

everything  that  can  he  asked,  men  and  money  without  stint,  and  a 
power  to  dechire  martial  law  all  over  the  country.  11"  we  lail,  tliere- 
fore,  it  will  not  be  IVom  want  of  the  spirit  ol"  the  old  Roman  dicta- 
torship. But  I  do  not  think  we  shall  Tail,  though  I  think  the  Presi- 
dent and  his  advisers  are  not  etpial  to  the  emergency.  The  people, 
however,  are.  At  least  I  trust  so,  and  so  believe. 
We  are  all  well 

Yours  sincerely, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  George  T.  Curtis,  Esq.,  New  York. 

Boston,  May  8,  1863. 
The  outside  world  in  one  shape  intrudes  upon  everybody,  even  the 
most  secluded,  in  these  days.  Hooker's  disasters  will  be  gradually 
let  in  upon  the  country,  but  w^hat  will  be  the  effect  ?  Will  people 
wake  up  to  the  position  of  affairs,  or  will  they  go  on  in  the  old  ways 
of  talking,  and  caucusing,  and  making  proclamations  ?  It  seems  to 
be  settled  in  the  minds  of  the  community,  that  a  civil  war,  of  the 
gigantic  proportions  to  which  this  one  has  attained,  is  to  be  carried  on 
by  the  old  machinery  of  party,  that  we  are  to  have  great  popular 
meetings,  with  the  galleries  reserved  for  the  ladies,  and  music  to  en- 
tertain them  ;  loyal  leagues  of  men  and  women ;  dinners  and  dinner 
speeches,  and  all  the  claptrap  devices  of  the  times  of  a  great  election. 
Why,  you  might  as  well  set  the  men  and  women,  and  the  newspapers, 
and  the  caucuses,  and  clubs,  to  put  out  a  volcano,  or  stop  an  earth- 
quake.    If  the  President  don't  see  this  and  make  a  clean  sweep,  he 

cannot,  I  think,  get  on  much  farther For  myself,  I  do  not 

think  my  opinion  is  worth  much  until  I  get  rid  of  the  lumbago. 
When.  I  do,  perhaps  I  shall  enlist,  —  perhaps  not 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  May  12,  1863. 
My  dear  Head,  —  You  have  met  with  a  great  loss,*  and  I  cannot 
refuse  myself  the  gratification  of  telling  you  that  I  sympathize  with 
you  very  sincerely.  I  have  just  been  reading  the  remarks  in  tlie 
House  of  Commons  by  Mr.  AValpole  and  Mr.  Disraeli,  on  the  loss 
sustained  by  the  nation  ;  but  I  thought  of  you  all  the  time,  and  of 
our  last  meeting  at  Kent  House,  and  talking  with  Sir  George  Lewis 
till  after  midnight,  the  day  but  one  before  I  left  London. 

*  By  the  death  of  Sir  George  Coruevrall  Lewis. 


462  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  1863. 

Of  course  I  knew  him  but  little,  but  there  was  one  quality  of  his 
mind  of  vast  consequence  to  him  as  a  statesman,  and  to  his  country, 
which  was  very  quickly  apparent ;  I  mean  his  instinctive  fairness. 
He  was  singularly  able  and  willing  to  change  his  opinion,  when  new 
facts  came  to  unsettle  his  old  one.  He  seemed  to  do  it,  too,  without 
regret.  This  struck  me  the  first  time  I  saw  him,  which  was  at  break- 
fast at  Lord  Stanhope's,  in  July,  1856,  and  it  was  still  more  strongly 
apparent  the  next  morning  at  breakfast  at  his  own  house  ;  the  con- 
versation on  both  occasions  having  been  much  on  American  affairs. 
....  And  so  it  continued,  I  think,  every  time  I  saw  him  that  sum- 
mer, and  the  next,  down  to  the  last  dinner  at  his  house,  when  we 
were  together.  I  remember  that  I  used  to  think  he  had  the  greatest 
respect  for  facts  of  any  man  I  ever  saw,  and  an  extraordinary  power 
of  determining,  from  internal  evidence,  what  were  such.  I  suppose 
this  meant,  that  the  love  of  truth  was  the  uppermost  visible  quality 
in  his  character.* 

How  Lady  Theresa  will  bear  her  loss,  coming  so  close  upon  that 
of  her  daughter,  I  do  not  know.  Her  place  in  the  world  seems  to  be 
made  vacant  by  it  as  much  as  that  of  Sir  George  ;  for  she  should 
always  be  associated  with  those  who  hold  in  their  hands  large  power. 
At  least,  it  has  always  so  seemed  to  me,  in  the  little  I  have  known  of 
her  ;  so  admirably  did  she  appear  to  be  fitted,  both  by  her  intellect- 
ual constitution  and  accomplishments,  and  by  her  gentle  wisdom 
and  graceful  tact  in  society,  for  a  place  among  those  who  manage 
the  affairs  of  the  world She  has,  I  apprehend,  a  very  affec- 
tionate nature.  At  least,  when  I  last  knew  her,  the  death  of  her 
mother  —  who  had  then  been  dead  some  years  —  still  lay  heavy  on 
her  heart 

*  In  his  reply  to  this  letter  Sir  Edmund  says  :  "Your  letter  is  very  striking, 
and  very  true,  with  reference  to  poor  Lewis's  mind  and  character,  —  so  much  so 
that  I  shall  venture  to  take  a  liberty,  which  I  hope  you  will  pardon.  I  shall 
cause  an  extract  from  it  (of  course  without  your  name)  to  be  used  in  an  article 
which  will  appear  in  the  next  '  Edinburgh  Review.'  "  In  answer  to  this,  again, 
Mr.  Ticknor  writes  :  "  I  have  not  seen  the  July  number  of  the  '  Edinburgh,' 
and,  indeed,  do  not  know  whether  it  has  come.  Therefore  I  am  still  uncertain 
what  you  may  have  found  in  my  letter  that  could  be  turned  to  account.  What 
I  thought,  and  still  think,  about  Sir  George  Lewis,  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
men  I  have  met,  I  know  very  well.  What  I  said  about  him  is  quite  another 
matter,  for  I  remember  nothing  of  it.  But  whatever  it  was,  you  are  welcome  to 
it.  I  only  Avish  it  may  have  been  better  than  I  can  think  it  was.  Please  tell 
me,  however,  who  wrote  the  article,  for  though  I  naturally  suppose  you  did,  I 
should  like  to  know  for  certain."    Sir  Edmund  admitted  that  he  wrote  it. 


M  72.]  LETTERS  TO  MR.   GARDIXER.  403 


To  Egbert  H.  Gardiner,  Esq.,  Gardiner. 

Newport,  R.  I.,  August  29,  1863. 

When  I  first  wTote  to  you  that  I  did  not  like  to  venture  a  journey 
in  very  hot  weather,  I  had  a  misgiving  that  I  was  standing  on  pretty 

slippery  ground Since  my  last  letter,   however,  —  now  ten 

days  ago,  —  Mrs.  Ticknor  has  been  constantly  in  bed,  Dr.  Barker 
attending  her  generally  twice  a  day,  and  I  have  been  in  bed  part  of 
the  time  in  a  contiguous  room,  and  under  his  care  the  whole  of 
it 

Yesterday,  while  I  was  still  confined  to  my  bed,  Sir  Henry  Hol- 
land, who  visited  you  at  Gardiner  a  few  years  ago,  came  in  upon  me 
straight  from  London.  I  had  a  long  talk  with  him,  from  which  I  in- 
fer that  the  best  chance  our  friends  in  England  see  for  us  is,  that  we 
should  continue  our  victories,  until  we  feel  strong  and  magnanimous 
enough  to  proclaim  an  amnesty,  and  offer  the  South  to  settle  every- 
thing—  a  new  constitution  and  all  —  by  a  convention.  So  little  do 
they  know 

Latrobe  of  Baltimore,  who  came  in  the  evening,  has  a  wholly  differ- 
ent remedy The  plan  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  wiser  than 

Sir  Henry's  ;  but  each  is  as  good  as  any  I  have  heard  of.  ...  . 

To  Eobert  H.  Gardiner,  Gardiner. 

Boston,  November  11,  1863. 

My  dear  Mr.  Gardiner,  —  I  cannot  tell  you  how  much  I  was 
touched  by  your  letter,  which  came  yesterday  afternoon.  Two  days 
earlier  I  had  heard  of  your  illness,  indistinctly,  indeed,  as  to  the  form 
and  detail,  but  decisively  as  to  its  character  ;  and  the  next  day  I 
talked  the  matter  over  with  our  old  and  faithful  friend,  Mr.  Minot, 
and  determined  to  write  to-day  to  Frederic,  as  he  had  already  done.* 
But  your  letter  leaves  me  no  doubt ;  I  am  permitted  by  not  only  your 
Christian  equanimity,  —  of  which  I  never  doubted,  —  but  by  your 
clear-sighted  comprehension  of  your  own  case,  to  write  to  you  with- 
out embarrassment.  A  position  like  yours,  understood,  and  accepted 
as  you  accept  it,  is  a  teaching  for  all.  I  recognize  it  as  such,  and  shall 
endeavor  to  profit  by  it.  The  time  for  me  must  be  short,  as  it  must 
be  for  everybody  who  is  well  past  his  threescore  and  ten. 

I  shall  vrrite  to  you  from  time  to  time,  as  I  may  have  anything  to 

*  Mr.  Gardiner  had  become  aware  that  he  had  a  fatal  disease,  and  had  writ- 
ten openly  and  tranquilly  upon  the  subject  to  his  friends. 


464  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1864. 

say  that  I  think  can  interest  you.  I  know  that  nothing  can  prevent 
you  from  being  interested  in  the  fate  of  a  country  that  you  have  loved 
so  long,  and  to  which  you  intrust  a  posterity  dearer  to  you  than  life. 
That  we  shall  not  be  utterly  ruined,  I  trust  and  believe.  If  we  have 
offended  against  Heaven  as  a  nation  in  many  ways,  I  hope  that  we  are 
not  cast  off  altogether ;  and  that  your  children  and  mine  may  con- 
tinue to  find  a  resting-place  here,  which  —  with  trials,  indeed,  but  not 
severer  than  they  will  profit  by  —  may  yet  give  them  aild  theirs  the 
resources  needful  for  happiness  and  improvement.  But  it  will  not  be 
the  same  country  that  you  and  I  have  lived  in.  As  Dr.  Bowditch 
said  to  me,  above  thirty  years  ago,  in  a  manner  so  impressive  that  I 
remember  the  spot  where  we  stood,  and  rarely  pass  it  without  recall- 
ing the  circumstance,  "  We  are  living  in  the  best  days  of  the  repub- 
lic. ,  That  the  worst  will  follow  soon  does  not  seem  to  me  very  likely. 
But  nations  advance,  and  thrive,  and  die,  like  men  ;  and  can  no  more 
have  a  second  youth  than  their  inhabitants  can." 

Since  I  have  been  writing,  Mr.  Minot  has  been  in  to  tell  me  that 
he  has  had  a  letter  from  you  to-day,  and  answered  it.  He  seems  in 
good  health,  quite  as  good  as  he  enjoyed  when  he  was  with  you  last 
summer.  But  his  spirits  are  probably  less  bright.  The  cold  weather 
is  not  a  refreshment  to  him  as  it  is  to  me  ;  and  he  is  saddened,  I  can. 
see,  by  your  illness.  He  feels  as  I  did,  when  Dr.  Hayward,  my  old 
playmate,  was  taken  away,  that  my  turn  may  come  next.  Proximus 
ardet  Ucalegon.  My  neighbor's  house  is  gone,  and  the  conflagration, 
must  reach  mme  very  soon 

I  have  still  enough  to  do  to  keep  me  contented,  and  to  encourage 
me  to  work  on.  I  hope,  as  long  as  I  have  strength,  that  I  shall  never 
be  in  want  of  occupation  for  others.  Old  people,  I  think,  take  little 
pleasure  in  working  for  themselves 

Believe  me  always  faithfully  and  affectionately  yours, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


To  Egbert  H.  Gardiner,  Esq.,  Gardiner. 

Boston,  January  14,  1864. 
My  dear  Mr.  Gardiner,  —  "We  receive  constantly  the  most  grati- 
fying accounts  of  your  condition,  in  whatever,  at  this  stage  of  your 
progress  onwards,  is  important  and  consoling.  But  when  I  turn  to 
tell  you  so,  and  put  pen  to  paper,  even  in  answer  to  your  pleasant 
letter  of  last  week,  I  stop  and  hesitate  what  I  shall  say.  It  seems  as 
if  the  words  that  have  to  travel  so  far,  along  with  the  every-day  busi' 


M.  72.]  LOSS  OF  FRIEXDS.  465 

iiess  of  common  life,  must  grow  hollow  and  unmeaning  before  they 
reach  you,  while  I  would  have  them  fresh  and  warm,  as  they  would 
be  if  I  were  sitting  by  your  side,  and  could  adapt  them  to  the  varying 
condition  of  your  mind,  as  your  thoughts  inevitably  sway  to  and  fro 
under  the  pressure  of  bodily  infirmities.  Still,  I  cannot  help  \mting, 
if  it  be  only  to  say  that  we  are  all  of  us  more  and  more  desirous  to 
hear  of  you,  and  more  and  more  interested,  and  gratified,  with  what 
comes  to  us.  God,  I  feel  very  trustful,  will  be  gentle  in  his  dealings 
with  you,  as  he  has  always  been.  The  temperament  it  pleased  him 
to  give  you  originally  has  insured  to  you,  through  a  long  and  happy 
life,  a  remarkable  degree  of  composure  and  equanimity.  And  so,  I 
fully  believe,  it  will  continue  to  the  end.  Certainly  I  pray  that  it 
may  be  so. 

If  I  could  know  what  would  interest  and  occupy  your  thoughts  at 
the  moment  when  my  letter  will  reach  you,  I  might  fill  out  a  sheet 
or  more,  as  usual.  But,  in  fact,  when  I  wrote  to  you  last  and  now 
again,  I  do  not  feel  as  if  I  could  write  on  common  subjects,  or  think 
about  common  things.  I  see  you  too  distinctly  for  this,  on  your 
sofa  in  the  library,  surrounded  by  those  you  most  love  on  earth,  and 
still  giving  and  receiving  pleasure.  I  do  not,  indeed,  hear  the  words 
you  utter,  but  I  know  their  meaning,  full  of  gentleness  and  love  ; 
and  I  know  that  those  who  do  hear  them  will  treasure  them  up,  and 
that,  hereafter,  some  of  them  will  reach  me.  Meantime,  we  shall 
continue  to  think  and  speak  of  you  dail}',  and  cherish  for  you  the 
aftection  which  has  so  long  been  a  part  of  our  happiness,  and  which, 
no  change  or  separation  can  impair. 

With  tender  regards  from  Mrs.  Ticknor  and  myself  to  Mrs.  Gardi- 
ner, and  to  all  whom  love  and  duty  alike  gather  round  you,  believe 
me,  my  dear  Mr.  Gardiner,  now  and  always 

Your  sincere  friend, 

George  Tickxor. 

To   B.   B.   WlFFEN. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  March  25,  1S64. 
Friend  Benjamin  B.  Wiffen,  —  I  received,  three- days  ago,  from 
Triibner  &  Co.,  a  rich  copy  of  the  improved  CX.  Consideraziones 
de  Juan  de  Valdes,  together  with  your  very  kind  and  interesting 
letter  of  the  8th  of  last  month.     I  thank  you  for  both  very  cordially, 
and  shall  preserve  them  among  the  things  that  I  hold  to  be  precious. 
Your  notice  of  the  death  of  a  sister,  who  had  been  your  companion 
from  childhood,  and  whose  empty  seat  by  your  hearth  makes  you 
20*  DD 


466  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1864. 

feel  very  desolate,  touches  me  nearly.  I  am  old,  —  almost  seventy- 
three,  —  and  the  few  friends  of  my  youth  and  riper  years,  that  have 
remained  to  me  until  now,  are  constantly  dropping  away.  One  has 
fallen  this  week.  Another  will  go  soon.  And  the  rest  must  follow 
before  long,  whether  it  pleases  God  that  I  should  precede  them  or 
not. 

In  1819  I  spent  two  or  three  days  with  the  Duke  of  Bedford  at 
Wobum  Abbey.*  There  was  a  brilliant  party  there,  just  at  the  end 
of  the  shooting-season,  —  the  old  Lord  Spencer,  Frere,  the  Jerseys, 
etc.  One  forenoon  I  remember  that,  with  your  brother,  and  a  clergy- 
man whose  name  I  have  forgotten,  I  walked  a  good  deal  about  the 
grounds  and  park.  Lord  John  was  at  home,  and  my  recollections  of 
him  —  with  whom  I  have  kept  up  some  intercourse  from  time  to  time 
ever  since  —  and  of  your  brother  are  most  agreeable,  as  they  are,  in- 
deed, of  the  whole  visit.  From  Lord  John  I  had  a  letter  yesterday, 
and  am  glad  to  find  that,  notwithstanding  the  contests  of  party  and 
his  elevation  —  if  it  be  such  —  to  the  peerage,  his  literary  tastes  are 
still  strong. 

You  ask  me  if  there  are,  in  the  United  States,  any  public  libraries 

\  to  which  you  may  send  the  reprints  of  the  ancient  Spanish  Reformers, 

and  where  they  would  be  preserved,  and  would  serve  the  purposes  of 
literature  ?  I  answer,  confidently,  that  there  are  many  such.  Har- 
vard College,  near  Boston,  and  the  Astor  Library,  New  York,  are 
among  the  more  prominent  of  the  number.  But  the  one  I  will  ven- 
ture to  commend  to  your  favor  is  the  Boston  Public  Library,  of  which 
I  send  you,  by  this  mail,  the  last  annual  report,  to  show  you,  in  part, 
what  it  is.  The  first  portion  of  this  report  was  drawn  up  by  Mr. 
Everett,  formerly  our  Minister  in  England,  and  our  principal  Secretary 
of  State  at  home,  —  an  accomplished  scholar  as  well  as  a  wise  states- 

J^  man.     The  second  part  was  dra^\^l  up  by  myself,  and  the  third  by  the 

very  efficient  Superintendent  of  the  institution I  have  given 

to  it  above  three  thousand  volumes,  many  of  them  rare  ;  and  intend 
to  give  to  it  my  Spanish  and  Portuguese  collections,  which  will  make 
as  many  more.  If  these  facts,  together  with  what  you  will  find  in 
the  report  I  send,  should  induce  you  to  favor  us,  I  shall  be  grateful, 
and  will  insure  the  fulfilment  of  your  designs  and  wishes,  as  far  as  it 
may  be  done  anywhere.     If,  however,  your  kindness  should  take 

another  direction,  I  shall  not  complain 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

George  Ticknor. 

♦  See  Vol.  I.  p.  268. 


^.72.]  INDEX  TO  CLEMENCIN.  4G7 

To  Charles  Frederic  Bradford,  Esq.,  Boston, 

Park  Street,  April  1, 1864. 

My  dear  Mr.  Bradford,  —  I  received  this  forenoon  your  Index  "1 
to  Clemencin's  Notes  on  Don  Quixote,  a  marvellous  work,  carefully- 
prepared,  beautifully  written,  tastefully  bound.  That  you  should 
have  done  this  in  any  degree  to  please  me,  is  a  gratification  such  as 
a  schohar  seldom  receives  ;  that  you  should  give  me  such  a  charming 
copy  of  it  demands  and  receives  my  very  cordial  and  sincere  thanks. 
I  have  looked  over  several  pages  of  it,  and  many  separate  heads,  and 
find  it  accurate,  as  I  expected  it  would  be.  Hereafter,  I  shall  use  it 
for  the  serious  purposes  of  study,  and  do  not  doubt  that  I  shall  often 
be  benefited  by  it. 

When  I  see  how  much  patient,  faithful  labor  you  have  bestowed 
upon  this  Index,  I  am  consoled  by  the  thought  that  if  it  was  kindly 
intended  for  me,  it  has,  like  other  good  works,  not  been  without  ad- 
vantage to  its  author.  You  must  have  learnt  a  great  deal  about  the 
history  and  criticism  of  Spanish  literature,  which  you  would  be  sorry 
to  part  with.     Others,  too,  will  use  it  and  profit  by  it.* 

Your  graceful  and  modest  account  of  the  imperfect  advantages  you 
have  enjoyed  for  literary  culture  surprised  me  very  much,  as  com- 
pared with  the  results  you  have  reached.  I  knew  from  yourself,  and 
in  other  ways,  that  your  early  opportunities  had  been  small,  but  I 
had  no  idea  that  they  had  been  so  very  inconsiderable.  It  makes  me 
ashamed  to  think  that,  with  all  the  means  vouchsafed  to  me,  I  have 
yet  done  no  more.  I  assure  you,  I  feel  this  painfully  at  the  moment 
I  write  it. 

Please  to  give  my  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Bradford,  and  tell  her  that 
I  congratulate  her  on  your  release  from  this  hard,  long  work.  I  can- 
not doubt  that  she  must,  sometimes,  have  thought  that  you  were  giv- 
ing to  it  time  to  which  she  had  a  better  claim.  But  it  is  done,  and 
again  I  thank  you  for  it,  adding,  that  if,  as  you  kindly  say,  I  have  in 
any  way  helped  you  in  your  studies,  I  shall  feel  bound  to  do  it  still 
more  hereafter,  in  order  partly  to  balance  my  present  obligation. 

Yours  very  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

*  Mr.  Bradford  has  since  enlarged  this  Index,  and  has  made,  with  his  own 
hand,  other  exquisite  copies  of  it,  of  which  he  has  presented  one  to  Harvard 
College,  and  one  wholly  in  Spanish  is  now  on  its  way  to  Spain  for  the  Royal  j 

Academy,  of  which  he  has  been  made  a  member. 


468  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1864. 


To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  April  20,  1864. 
My  dear  Head,  — ....  As  soon  as  I  received  Sir  George's  book  * 
about  tbe  Administrations,  1783-1830,  I  read  the  first  article,  which 
is  largely  about  American  affairs  ;  and  as  I  went  on,  I  kept  saying  to 
myself,  "  He  ought  to  have  been  a  judge,  he  ought  to  have  been  Lord 
Chancellor."  Nothmg  in  the  way  of  investigation  seems  ever  to  escape 
him,  and  when  all  his  facts  are  brought  together,  then  comes  in  his 
judicial  fairness,  and  makes  everything  clear,  as  measured  by  some 
recognized  principle.  See  what  he  says  about  Lord  Shelburne's 
career,  and  especially  what  he  says  about  Fox's  mistake  in  joining 
Lord  North.  I  do  not  know  anything  like  it  in  political  history. 
Eomilly  and  Horner  had  a  good  deal  of  the  same  character  ;  but,  though 
they  came  to  as  fair  and  honest  results  as  anvbodv,  thev  were  both 
practising  lawyers,  and  preserved  something  of  the  air  of  advocates,  in 
the  form  and  turn  of  their  discussions.  Perhaps  Le^\as  might  have 
had  the  same  air  if  he  had  been  in  the  courts,  and  had  had  clients  to 
conciliate  as  well  as  to  serve.  As  it  is,  we  get,  I  think,  in  him  only 
a  sort  of  clear,  judicial  statesmanship,  of  which  —  very  likely  because 
I  know  so  little  of  political  history  —  I  can  refer  to  no  other  example. 
How  is  it  ?  ...  . 

To  Brigadier-General  Stlvanus  Thayer. 

Boston,  April  29,  1864. 
My  dear  General,  —  I  can't  help  it  this  once.  Next  time  it  shall 
be  "  My  dear  Thayer,"  as  of  old.  But  to-day  you  must  consent  to  be 
"the  General,"  and  nothing  else.  At  any  rate,  since  last  evening, 
when  I  saw  the  announcement  in  the  paper,  I  have  had  you  con- 
stantly before  me  with  the  two  stars  on  your  shoulder-strap  ;  feeling 
all  the  time  that  a  galaxy  would  not  be  an  overstatement  of  your 
deserts,  so  far  as  the  creation  of  West  Point,  and  the  education  of  the 
officers  of  our  army,  is  concerned.  But  enough  of  this.  I  do  not  con- 
gratulate you.  When  only  an  act  of  decent  justice  is  done,  the  person 
who  does  it  is  to  be  congratulated,  if  anvbodv  is.  I  therefore  con- 
gratulate  a  little  —  not  much  —  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  if  anybody 
else  has  had  a  hand  in  it,  I  congratulate  him,  too  ;  but  I  never  saw 
the  Secretary,  and  never  expect  to  see  him,  so  that  my  congratulations 
will  be  lost  in  thin  air,  like  all  those  unavailing  supplications  in 
Homer. 

*  Sh  G.  C.  Lewis. 


M.  73.]  DEATH  OF  MR.  EVERETT.  4G9 

You  have  not  answered  my  note  about  a  visit.  Do  not  let  tliat  — 
the  visit,  I  mean  —  be  lost  in  the  same  thin  air.  I  want  to  have  a 
long  talk  or  two  with  you,  and  never  shall  do  it  unless  you  come 

here 

Yours  always,  General  or  no  General,  but  old  classmate, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

When  Mr.  Ticknor  made,  on  his  seventy-sixth  birthday,  the 
list  of  his  early  friends,  —  from  whom  oiily  death  was  to  part 
him,*  —  he  had  already  endured  the  pain  of  separation  from 
nearly  all  those  who  were  not  destined  to  survive  him.  The 
death  of  ]\Ir.  Everett  in  January,  1865,  was  a  shock  from  its 
extreme  suddenness,  and  it  broke  up  an  intercourse  which,  for 
the  previous  fourteen  or  fifteen  years,  had  been  extremely  close 
and  confidential.  Their  meetings,  when  both  were  in  Boston, 
were  almost  daily,  and  the  number  of  notes  which  passed  between 
them  was  so  great  as  to  cause  amused  comments  in  the  family,  on 
this  lady-like  or  lover-like  frequency  of  billets-doux,  t 

On  the  day  of  Mr.  Everett's  death  Mr.  Ticknor  wrote  to  Mr. 
G.  T.  Curtis  :  — 

Boston,  Sunday,  January  15,  1865.  ^ 
My  dear  George,  —  Everett  died  of  apoplexy  this  morning  at 
about  half  past  four  o'clock. 

I  went  to  see  him  yesterday,  because  he  was  unwell,  although  I  was, 
myself,  not  quite  right  for  going  out  in  bad  weather.  He  Avas  suffer- 
ing from  a  terrible  cold,  which  he  caught  last  Monday,  when  he  made 
a  legal  argument  before  referees  about  the  damage  done  to  his  estate 
in  Medford  by  the  Charlestown  water-works  ;  and  afterwards,  before 
dinner,  made  the  speech  you  have  seen  about  the  Savannah  case. 
The  doctor — Hay  ward — had  been  anxious  about  him  at  first,  but 
was  soon  relieved  of  any  apprehension  of  immediate  danger,  though 
he  treated  him  tenderly,  and  visited  him  twice  daily,  watching  him 
with  care,  as  he  said,  because  he  was  above  seventy. '  When  I  saw 

*  See  Vol.  I.  p.  316. 

t  Mr.  Everett  was  in  the  liaLit  of  preserving  everything  of  this  kind,  and  Islv. 
Ticknor  received  tack  more  than  five  hundred  notes  and  letters  which  he  had 
written.  Almost  all  were  short ;  a  large  quantity  lie  destroyed,  and  of  the  re- 
mainder only  a  few  were  of  so  general  a  character  that  they  could  be  used  in 
these  volumes. 


470  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1865. 

him  yesterday,  he  could  not  speak  above  a  whisj^er,  and  was  evidently 
quite  ill,  but  he  was  in  his  library  and  moved  about  the  room  freely, 
giving  directions  and  making  arrangements  for  a  person  who  was 
copying  something  for  him.  I  came  away  without  any  special  anx- 
iety about  the  case. 

This  morning  early  I  was  sent  for  ;  but  I  stayed  in  bed  late,  not 
being  well,  and  Michael,  when  he  brought  the  shaving-water,  was 
miwilling  to  tell  me.  As  breakfast  was  ready  your  aunt  thought 
it  better  to  wait  till  I  had  had  the  needed  refreshment.  So  I 
did  not  get  there  till  after  nine.     William  was  alone,  and  had  seen 

nobody  but  his  uncle I  sent  for  Mr.  Winthrop,  who  came  at 

once,  but  we  were  able  to  settle  nothing,  and  are  to  go  again  at  half 
past  twelve 

I  do  not  yet  come  to  any  living  perception  of  what  has  happened  ; 
everything  was  so  natural  in  that  library,  that  when  Winthrop  came 
in  my  first  impression  was  that  Everett  was  entering  the  room.  A 
minute  afterwards  I  think  I  felt  worse  than  I  have  at  any  time.  It 
is  a  terrible  shock."^  .... 

To  General  Thayer,  Braintree. 

Boston,  April  25,  1865. 

My  dear  Thayer,  —  Faithful  Michael  —  my  true  follower  of  four- 
teen years'  standing  —  honestly  owned  to  me,  two  days  ago,  that  you 
called  here  some  time  since, — date  uncertain,  —  and  that  he  forgot 
to  tell  me  of  it.     I  forgave  him,  though  I  was  tant  soit  ijeu  chagrine. 

As  it  is  no  fault  of  mine,  I  trust  that  you  will  make  it  up  to  me,  as 
generous  men  are  wont  to  do.  Especially  I  beg  you  to  remember 
your  promise  to  come  in,  about  these  days,  and  spend  a  night  or 
more  with  us.  We  are  quite  alone,  —  Anna  in  London,  Lizzie  in  New 
York,  both  for  their  health  ;  and  even  some  of  our  most  intimate 
friends  away,  some  for  one  reason,  some  for  another.  So  we  are  very 
solitary.  And  only  think  what  has  happened  t  that  we  must  talk 
about !  I  never  dreamed,  in  my  worst  fears,  of  living  through  such  a 
period  of  horrors.  Indeed,  I  hardly  comprehend  now  what  has  hap- 
pened  

*  In  a  note  to  General  Thayer  he  says  :  "  We  shall  miss  him  [Everett]  very 
much.  I  had  known  him  almost  as  long  as  I  have  known  you.  Pray  try  to 
live  a  little  longer ;  I  can't  spare  you  all." 

t  Assassination  of  President  Lincoln. 


M.  74.]        DEATH  OF  SIR  WILLIAM  ROWAN  HAMILTON.         471 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  Septemlser  20,  1865. 

My  dear  Head,  —  ....  Tell  me  what  you  think  about  Lord 
Derby's  Iliad.  Sometimes  he  is  not  up  to  the  German  critics,  among 
whom,  if  I  follow  him  at  all,  it  is  only  by  accident.  But  his  ^Miltonic 
blank-verse,  I  think,  shows  that  he  has  a  true  feeling  about  his  work. 
It  is  a  great  while  since  I  have  seen  old  Potter's  -^schylus,  but 
Lord  Derby  has  sometimes  reminded  me  of  that  fierce  Greek  dogma- 
tist. I  kept  Pope,  Chapman,  and  Cowper  on  the  table,  as  well  as 
the  original ;  but  the  English  triumvirate  seemed  to  me  as  pale  before 
Lord  Derby,  while  I  was  reading  him,  as  lie  did  before  the  Greek. 

On  looking  again  at  your  Spanish  proverb  I  am  a  little  imcertain 
—  notwithstanding  your  ever  clear  and  fair  chirography  —  whether 
you  wrote  mear  el  vado,  or  mear  al  vado 3Iear  el  vado  may  sig- 
nify, knocking  away  the  very  foundations  on  which  you  build.  But 
quien  sahe  ?    The  context,  if  there  is  one,  might  show. 

Agassiz  is  having  his  own  way  in  Brazil  as  much  as  he  ever  had 
here.  The  Emperor  does  everything  for  him  that  he  wants,  gives  him 
a  steamer  to  go  up  the  Amazon  free  of  every  possible  charge,  puts 
two  engineers  aboard  who  have  surveyed  the  river,  etc. 

I  am  sorry  to  see  the  death  of  Hamilton,  the  Irish  mathematician. 
A  great  light  is  put  out.  I  saw  him  knighted  in  1835,  and  he  gave 
Aima  a  few  days  afterwards  a  grand  sonnet,  which  he  WTote  on  the 

occasion,  and  which  I  now  have It  is  certainly  fine  as  few 

sonnets  are,* 

*  Such  a  gift  to  a  child  was,  of  course,  meant  for  her  father.  Tliis  alhision 
to  the  sonnet  (already  mentioned,  Vol.  I.  p.  425,  note)  gives  au  opportunity  to 
present  the  sonnet  itself  here  which  is  quite  irresistible  :  — 

A    PKATER. 

O  brooding  Spirit  of  Wisdom  and  of  Love, 
Whose  miglity  wings  even  now  o'ershadow  me, 
Absorb  me  in  thine  own  immensity, 

And  raise  me  far  my  finite  self  above  ! 

Purge  vanity  away,  and  the  weak  care 
That  name  or  fame  of  me  may  widely  spread  : 
And  the  deep  wish  leave  burning  in  their  stead, 

Thy  blissful  influence  afar  to  bear,  — 

Or  see  it  borne  !    Let  no  desire  of  ease. 
No  lack  of  courage,  faith,  or  love,  delay 
Mine  own  steps  in  that  high  thought-paven  way 

In  which  my  soul  her  clear  commission  sees  : 

Tet  with  an  equal  joy  let  me  behold 

Thy  chariot  o'er  that  way  by  others  roll'd  1 


472  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1866. 


To  Professor  Louis  Agassiz. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A,,  January  14,  1866. 

Mt  dear  Agassiz,  —  You  have  written  me  three  interesting  and 
important  letters  from  Brazil,  and  I  have  answered  neither  of  them, 
partly  from  good  reasons,  partly  from  poor  ;  neither  worth  remember- 
ing now.  But  I  think  I  have  done  exactly  what  you  meant  I  should 
do  ;  I  have  used  them  in  every  way  I  could  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Museum,  and  of  your  present  expedition.  Out  of  them,  mainly,  I 
have  made  two  reports,  which  I  suppose  will  be  published  this  w^in- 
ter,  and  which  I  hope  you  will  find  substantially  right. 

But  this  is  all.  We  have  all  agreed  that  it  was  better  not  to  go  into 
the  newspapers  at  present ;  but  rather  to  leave  the  account  of  your 
doings  and  their  results  to  come  out  from  higher  and  more  authentic 
sources,  or  what  will  ultimately  be  best,  from  yourself.  .... 

There  is,  however,  one  matter  about  whjch  it  seems  especially  im- 
portant to  write  to  you  now.  By  your  last  letter  to  me,  dated  Manaos, 
23d  November,  as  well  as  from  other  letters  I  have  seen,  it  is  appar- 
ent that  you  would  like  to  stay  longer  in  Brazil ;  probably  another 
season.  It  does  not  surprise  me.  You  are,  besides  many  other  things 
higher  and  better,  a  collector.  You  are  a  passionate  collector.  I  have 
seen  and  known  many  such,  but  I  never  saw  one  who  was  satisfied 
with  what  he  had  gathered.  There  is,  however,  somewhere,  a  natural 
and  necessary  limit  to  everything  human,  and  it  is  clearly  the  part  of 
wisdom  to  discover  betimes  where  that  limit  is  fixed,  lest  we  should 
make  serious  mistakes  in  what  is  most  important  for  the  ordering  of 
our  lives  ;  I  mean,  if  it  is  in  a  matter  which  really  concerns  our  well- 
being  and  success. 

At  the  present  moment,  and  in  relation  to  your  present  plans,  there 
seem  to  be  two  points  of  this  sort,  in  which  you  and  your  friends  are 
alike  deeply  interested.  The  first  relates  to  the  care  and  preservation 
of  the  specimens  you  may  collect,  and  which  must,  most  of  them,  per- 
ish or  lose  their  value  if  not  cared  for  in  good  season  and  efficiently. 
Before  you  went  to  South  America  there  were  twice  as  many  speci- 
mens in  your  possession  as  could  be  properly  arranged  in  the  present 
building.  You  bade  me  say  so  in  one  of  the  Eeports  of  the  Commit- 
tee on  the  Museum,  and  it  was  said  accordingly,  and  remains  now  of 
record.  Since  you  left  us  vast  numbers  of  other  specimens  have  been 
received,  by  way  of  exchange  and  donation,  from  Europe  and  all  parts 
of  the  world  ;  and  there  seems,  from  your  letters,  to  be  no  end  to  those 
you  are  sending  from  Brazil.     We  do  not  believe  that  it  will  be  possi- 


.E.  74.]  LETTER  TO  PROFESSOR  AGASSIZ.  473 

ble  to  erect  all  tlie  buildings  and  provide  all  the  scientific  service, 
attendance,  and  materials  necessary  to  protect  and  maintain  in  good 
condition  such  masses  of  specimens,  and  make  them  intelligiljle  and 
useful.  The  mill  will  be  stopped  from  the  floods  that  will  be  poured 
upon  the  machinery  through  which  alone  it  can  be  made  to  move 

On  the  other  point  I  speak  wholly  from  the  authority  of  scientific 
experts  in  whom  you  have  confidence.  It  relates  to  yourself  only, 
and  to  your  great  and  noble  purposes  and  objects  in  life.  I  do  not 
feel  that  anybody  has  a  right  to  object  to  your  devoting  yourself  ex- 
clusively to  the  highest  investigations  in  natural  science,  postponing 
to  them  all  labors  relating  to  the  mere  collection  and  preservation 
of  the  materials  for  doing  so.  It  is  your  clear  right.  You  have 
done  an  immense  deal  of  work  of  this  humbler  sort.  The  Museum 
exists  by  your  generous  sacrifices.  You  are  emeritus,  and  it  may  be 
your  duty,  as  well  as  your  right,  to  change  in  this  respect  the  present 
course  of  your  life.  But  I  do  not  suppose  that  such  devotion  to  the 
very  highest  purposes  of  science  would  be  any  injury  to  the  Museum, 
which,  on  the  contrary,  you  would  illustrate  and  render  every  year 
more  important  and  useful  by  your  labors. 

But  your  collections,  as  I  am  assured,  are  already  larger,  much 
larger,  than  you  can  submit  to  such  investigations  as  you  intend  to 
make,  even  if  you  should  live  as  long  as  those  most  attached  to  you 
can  hope  or  ask  that  you  should.  Indeed,  those  who  best  know  as- 
sure me,  that  the  time  you  are  now  giving  to  the  accumulation  of 
specimens  —  which  may,  after  all,  perish  from  want  of  the  means 
needful  to  protect  them  —  might,  in  their  judgment,  be  better  em- 
ployed for  your  own  fame,  and  for  the  advancement  of  such  scien- 
tific investigations  as  you  can  make  better  than  any  man  alive,  and 
without  which  these  same  vast  collections  might  as  well  remain  in 
their  blind  kegs,  in  the  dark  cellar  where  they  are  now  hidden  away, 
and  so  your  vast  personal  labors  and  disinterested  sacrifices,  in  bring- 
ing them  together,  be  mainly  lost. 

It  is,  I  fear,  not  unlikely,  that,  surrounded  and  solicited  as  you  are 
now  by  such  extraordinary  means  of  readily  accumulating  what  you 
value  more  than  all  gold,  and  to  collecting  which  yau  have  devoted 
so  much  of  your  life  and  your  great  powers,  you  will  feel  that  I  am 
w^riting  ungraciously.  But  I  am  sure  that  I  ought  to  write  to  you 
thus  freely  and  frankly,  not  only  from  our  personal  relations  and 
from  your  most  open  and  kind  nature,  but  because  I  know  that  I 
only  send  you  the  earnest  convictions  of  those  who  most  value  you, 
and  whom  you  most  value 


474  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1866. 

All  would  ask  you  to  come  home  as  soon  as  you  can  make  con- 
venient and  becoming  arrangements  to  do  so.  And  how  you  will  be 
received !  .  .  .  . 

To  Sir  Edmund  Head. 

Boston,  January  30,  1866. 

My  dear  Head,  —  I  should  have  T\Titten  to  you  earlier,  I  suppose, 

but  I  have  been  ill However,  the  doctors  have  patched  me  up, 

so  that  I  am  well  enough  for  74  -  5.  At  least,  I  am  as  well  off  as  the 
eidolon  of  Branca  d'Oria,  and,  perhaps,  as  hollow.  E  mangia,  e  hee, 
e  dorme,  e  veste  'panni.     We  shall  see. 

Among  other  things  that  I  missed  while  I  was  in  this  "  interlunar 
cave,"  I  failed  to  see  your  Icelandic  translation,  in  Frazer,  till  yester- 
day. I  sent  for  it  three  times  ;  but,  as  so  often  happens,  I  did  not  get 
it  till  I  went  for  it  myself.  But  I  have  been  paid  for  my  trouble.  I 
enjoyed  it  very  much,  and  have  become  eager  to  see  more,  of  which  I 
find  a  notice  in  the  "  Times,"  that  came  to  me  a  few  days  ago.  ^Mean- 
while,  I  want  the  title  of  Bechstein's  "  Deutsches  Lesebuch,"  so  that  I 
can  order  it,  and  read  "  Es  stehen  die  Sterne  am  Himmel."  Biirger 
was  a  miserable  scamp ;  but  still  I  should  be  sorry  to  have  the  credit 
of  Lenore  taken  away  from  him.  I  have  always  understood  that  he 
got  the  hint  for  it  from  hearing  a  peasant-girl,  as  she  was  washing  in 
a  clear  moonlight  night,  sing  about 

^*  Die  Todten  reiten  schnelle, 
Feins  Liebchen,  grant  dir  nicht." 

At  least,  this  was  the  tradition  at  Gottingen,  —  not,  perhaps,  in  the 
days  of  Matilda  Pottingen,  but  just  half  a  century  ago,  when  I  lived 
there  ;  and  I  don't  like  to  have  it  disturbed,  except  on  very  good 
grounds. 

....  We  have  just  finished  reading  "  Lecky  "  loud,  —  by  far  the 
most  interesting  book  I  have  read  since  poor  Buckle's,  and  more  satis- 
factory than  his,  —  not  presumptuous  in  its  generalizations,  and  safer 

in  its  statements  of  fact 

Yours  ever, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Lady  Cranworth. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  December  24,  1866. 

My  dear  Lady  Cranworth,  —  ....  Please  to  tell  Lord  Cran^ 
worth,  that,  bearing  his  suggestion  in  mind,  I  read  "  Le  Consent,"  as, 
in  fact,  I  had  run  it  over  when  it  first  came  out.     It  is  a  very  inter- 


^.  75.]  MILITARY  CONSCRIPTION.  475 

estiiig,  life-like  book.  But  I  fear  it  will  produce  no  permanent  eilect 
on  the  French  national  character,  or  on  the  military  tastes  that  seem 
to  have  become  a  part  of  it.  French  men  and  women,  in  every  vil- 
lage of  their  country,  have  seen  sunilar  cases  of  heart-rending  misery, 
and  heard  tales  of  them  repeated  from  the  time  they  introduced  the 
heathenish  Roman  conscription,  above  sixty  years  ago,  and,  what  is 
worse,  they  have  been  proud  of  such  cases,  and  taught  the  victims  to 
be  proud  of  them.  Nothing,  it  seems  to  me,  tends  more  to  make  war 
savage  than  this  cruel,  forced  service,  which  the  soldier  who  survives 
it  yet  claims  at  last  as  his  great  glory,  because  he  cannot  afford  to  suf- 
fer so  much  and  get  no  honor  for  it.  It  is  a  splendid  sort  of  barbar- 
ism that  is  thus  promoted,  but  it  is  barbarism,  after  all ;  for  it  tends 
more  and  more  to  make  the  military  character  predominate  over  the 
civil. 


476  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1867. 


CHAPTEE    XXIY. 

1867  to  1870.  —  Letters  to  Sir  E.  Head,  Hon.  E.  Twisleton,  Sir  Walter 
Trevelyan,  the  King  of  Saxony,  G.  T.  Curtis,  General  Thayer. 

To  Sm  Edmund  Head,  London. 

Boston,  February  21,  1867. 

My  dear  Head,  —  I  am  surprised  to  find  that  I  sent  you  no  an- 
swer about  the  meaning  of  El  moron  in  the  ballad  of  "  Blanca  sois, 
Seiiora  Mia."  To  be  sure,  I  had  no  doubt  but  that  it  meant  the  horse, 
as  soon  as  you  gave  me  the  suggestion  of  Mrs.  Marshall,  and  I  rather 
think  that  we  ought  both  of  us  to  feel  a  little  mortified  that  we  needed 
the  lady's  hint.  And,  to  be  sure,  further  I  can  say  in  reply  to  your 
question,  that  I  do  not  remember  any  other  case  in  which  the  name  of 
the  color  is  put  for  the  horse,  although  I  will  bet  a  penny  I  ought  to 
recollect  cases  in  which  parclo,  hayo,  etc.,  are  so  used.  But  is  not 
Sancho's  ass  just  as  good  as  any  horse  in  the  world,  and  just  as  classi- 
cal, and  is  he  not  called  el  rucio  fifty  times  in  "  Don  Quixote  "  ? 

And  now  I  am  in  the  way  of  confessing,  I  will  acknowledge  that  I 
do  not  remember  telling  you  how  much  I  delight  in  the  "  Death  of 
old  King  Gorm."  See  how  old  and  forgetful  I  grow  !  So  I  have  just 
read  it  over  again,  and  have  enjoyed  it  as  much  as  I  did  when  it  first 
came  out.  Not  so  the  translation  from  Theocritus,  which  I  have  seen 
lately.  It  is  fine,  but  I  do  not  like  it  so  much.  I  wonder  whether 
I  take  less  than  I  used  to,  ^o  the  classical  fashions.  On  the  whole,  I 
think  not,  though  I  sometimes  suspect  it ;  I  should  be  sorry,  in  my 
old  age,  to  become  disloyal,  and  don't  mean  to. 

I  looked,  an  hour  or  two  ago,  into  Boswell's  Johnson,  and  be- 
thought me  that  you  are  the  Secretary  of  Johnson's  old  club.  Pray 
tell  me  what  sort  of  records  have  been  kept  of  its  meetings,  and  what 
sort  you  keep  1  Has  anything  more  satisfactory  been  published  about 
it  than  is  to  be  found  in  Vol.  I.  of  "  Croker"  ?  How  many  of  you  are 
there  now  ?  How  often  do  you  meet  ?  How  many,  on  an  average, 
come  together,  and  what  sort  of  times  do  you  have  1 

I  have  looked  over  Wornum's  "  Life  of  Holbein,"  as  you  counselled. 


M.  75.]  SPANISH  MATTERS.  477 

But  I  find  it  very  hard  reading,  so  ill  is  it  written.     Still,  it  contains 

a  great  many  new  facts,  and  much  careful  investigation.     I  hope  he 

will  not  make  out  a  case  against  the  Dresden  Madonna,  for  it  is  surely 

a  magnificent  picture,  and  should  not  be  slightly  dispossessed  of  its 

prescriptive  rights.     Probably  I  am  prejudiced  about  it ;  but,  if  I  am, 

I  can't  help  it,  and  am  not  ashamed  of  it Kindest  and  most 

faithful  regards  to  Lady  Head  and  yourself,  and  love  to  the  children 

from  all  of  us.     Tell  me  about  them. 

Yours  ever, 

Geo.  Tickxor. 

Thinking  over  the  matter  of  the  moreno,  and  your  question  whether 
I  knew  any  other  case  in  which  the  color  of  the  horse  is  put,  in  Span- 
ish, for  the  horse  himself,  I  turned  to  a  jDoor  ballad  by  Jacmto  Polo 
de  Medina,  in  the  beginning  of  his  third  Academia.  It  is  on  the  old 
subject  of  a  game  of  cams,  and  is  (of  course  almost)  intended  as  a 
compliment  to  the  different  persons  who  figure  in  it.  The  first  who 
comes  in  is  Don  Jorge  Bernal,  — 

*'  En  un  bayo,  cahos  negros. 
Que  en  una  andaluza  yegua 
Engendro  el  viento  ec." 

Another  is  Don  Francisco  de  Berastegui,  who 


and  later,  — 


**  encomienda 
Al  viento  un  rucio,"  — 

"  Ocupo  Don  Salvador 
Carillo  (gloria  suprema) 
Un  cdagan  que  a  los  vientos 
A  saber  correr  enseua." 

Indeed,  I  have  little  doubt  that  the  mere  word  for  color  was  used 
in  Spanish  to  indicate  the  horse,  as  often  as  we  use  sorrel,  etc.  ;  and  I 
shall  never  forget  how  full  half  a  century  ago,  in  the  Eeit-bahn  at 
Gottingen,  I  used  to  be  delighted  when  the  Stall-meister  called  out, 
"  Der  Schimmel  fiir  den  Herrn  Ticknor,"  because  a  gray  horse  was 
the  best  in  the  large  establishment.  In  short,  must  it  not  be  the  same 
in  all  languages '?.... 


To  Sir  Edmund  Head,  London. 

Brooklixe,  August  2,  1S67. 
My  dear  Head,  —  You  are  a  day  in  advance  of  me,  but  no  more  ; 
for  I  laid  out  your  last  letter  yesterday  to  answer  it,  and  in  the  even- 


478  LIFE  OF  GEOEGE  TICKNOR.  [1867. 

ing  came  yours  of  July  18,  —  very  agreeable  and  instructive,  like  all 
its  predecessors,  but  not  satisfactory  so  far  as  Lady  Head  is  concerned. 
By  this  time,  however,  I  trust  she  is  getting  draughts  of  health  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  Aachen,  Aquisgran,  or  whatever  else  they  choose  to 
make  out  of  the  Eoman  aquae.  I  have  been  there  twice,  and  thought 
the  place  detestable  both  times  ;  winter  and  summer  alike 

Thank  you  for  your  notices,  of  "  the  Club,"  and  for  the  little  printed 
sheet,  which  I  suppose  was  intended  for  official  convenience.  What 
you  told  me  about  a  similar  document,  prepared  earlier  by  Dean  Mil- 
man,  made  me  send  to  him  for  it,  and  not  long  since  I  received  from 
his  kindness  a  copy  of  it,  with  his  MSS.  additions  down  to  Dr.  Wm. 
Smith,  1867.  I  keep  all  these  as  very  curious  matters.  On  running 
over  the  list,  I  was  surprised  to  find  that  I  had  knoA\Ti  so  many  of  the 
members,  and  on  examining  it,  in  consequence,  with  more  care,  I 
find  that  I  have  had  more  or  less  correspondence  with  twenty-nine 
out  of  the  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven  members,  beginning  with  Sir 
Joseph  Banks,  who  runs  back  to  1778  ;  besides  which  I  have  met  in 
society  and  talked  with  at  least  twenty-seven  more  ;  so  that  I  have 
really  kno^vu  fifty-six  of  the  old  Johnson  Club,  all  since  1815  !  The 
reason  is  that  I  am  such  an  old  fellow  ;  I  was  seventy-six  yester- 
day  

We  are  all  well  and  prosperous.  I  am  better  than  I  have  been  for 
two  years,  and  take  great  comfort  in  the  tolerated  laziness  of  old  age. 
The  Dexters  are  just  gone  to  the  sea-coast  for  five  or  six  weeks'  sea- 
bathing ;  but  I  am  safe  in  adding  their  kind  regards  to  ours,  for  all 
of  you. 

Yours  faithfully, 

Geo.  Tickxor. 

Tell  me  about  Sir  Francis  Doyle,  and  the  Professorship  of  Poetry 
at  Oxford.  I  have  known  his  family  and  himseK  many  years,  and  he 
sent  me  lately  the  volume  of  Poems  by  which  he  claimed,  and  appar- 
ently won,  the  place.     Is  he  obliged  to  reside  ? 

To  HIS  Majesty  John,  King  of  Saxony. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  September  6,  1867. 

Sire,  —  The  political  condition  of  the  world,  on  both  sides  of  the 

Atlantic,  does  not  seem  to  have  become  more  tranquil  or  hopeful 

since  I  received  your  Majesty's  last  kind  and  interesting  letter,  in 

which  you  spoke  of  it  so  justly.     We  all  look,  in  this  country,  with 


M.  75.]  EMPEROR  MAXIMILIAN.  479 

great  anxiety  on  the  state  of  affairs  in  Europe.  We  do  not  see  how 
a  war  is  to  be  avoided  next  summer,  and  hardly  comprehend  by  what 
statesmanship  it  has  abeady  been  postponed  so  hjng.  The  ill-will 
of  nations  has  no  other  effective  mode  of  expressing  itself,  and  is  sure 
enough  to  reach  this  one  at  last.  How  strong  the  ill-will  has  become 
between  France  and  Prussia,  since  the  battle  of  Sadowa,  we  cannot 
measure  as  you  can.  But  it  is  an  old  grudge,  which  has  been  fester- 
ing in  the  hearts  of  Prussians  and  Frenchmen  ever  since  the  time  of 
Napoleon  the  First.  I  witnessed  it  in  both  countries,  when  I  was 
in  Europe  above  fifty  years  ago,  and  it  has  never  subsided  since. 

In  my  country  it  is  much  the  same.  "We  are  suffering  from  causes 
which  go  far  back  in  our  history,  and  which  have  been  very  active 
and  formidable  since  the  question  of  slavery  began  to  be  angrily  dis- 
cussed on  political  grounds,  almost  forty  years  ago 

But,  notwithstanding  our  own  troubles,  the  minds  of  men,  all 
through  the  country,  have  been  much  shaken  by  the  cruel  and  shame- 
ful death  of  Maximilian,  in  Mexico,  —  a  prince  so  cultivated,  so 
high-minded,  so  noble  in  his  whole  nature,  that  his  murder  seems  to 
bring  a  disgrace  on  the  age  in  which  we  live.  I  see  that  his  works 
are  about  to  be  published,  and  I  shall  be  anxious  to  read  them,  that 
I  may  better  understand  his  history  and  character 

When  I  look  at  this  misettled  and  uncertain  condition  of  things 
everywhere,  I  sometimes  think  we  live  in  a  decaying  civilization. 
It  seems  to  me,  in  such  dark  moments,  as  if  we  are  all  gradually 
ruining,  as,  I  suppose,  all  the  known  civilizations  of  the  world  — 
from  the  Assyrian  down  —  have  been  ruined,  by  the  concentration 
of  immense  masses  of  people  in  the  unwholesome  moral  atmosphere 
of  great  cities  ;  and  by  the  unending  increase  of  their  armies,  and  the 
enormous  preponderance  of  a  military  spirit,  both  of  which  separate 
men  from  the  beneficent  influences  of  the  soil  they  were  sent  into 
the  world  to  cultivate,  and  lead  directly  to  those  \dolent  revolutions 
which  destroy  all  sense  of  law  and  duty,  and  at  last  overturn  society 
itself.  jNIy  consolation,  when  these  dark  prospects  rise  before  me,  is 
that  such  changes  demand  all  but  geological  periods. 

But  my  real  refuge  is  among  my  books.  Amidst  these  I  always 
find  peace.  One  work,  which,  of  late,  has  much  interested  me,  I  took  ~i 
the  liberty  of  sending,  a  few  days  ago,  to  your  Majesty,  as  something 
you  may  not  be  sorry  to  see.  It  is  the  translation  of  the  "  Divina 
Commedia,"  recently  published  here  by  our  well-known  poet,  Long- 
fellow. He  has  been  many  years  employed  on  it,  —  above  five-and- 
twenty  within  my  own  knowledge,  —  imposing  upon  himself,  all  the 


480  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1867. 


time,  sucli  rigorous  conditions  that  I  wonder  lie  has  been  able  to  do 
it  at  all.  For  be  has  rendered  the  whole  poem  absolutely  line  for 
line,  making  each  line  express  exactly  what  belongs  to  the  corre- 
sponding line  in  the  original ;  —  not  a  particle  more,  not  a  particle 
less.  In  this  he  has  been  more  severe  with  himself  than  any  translator 
of  Dante  kno"«Ti  to  me, — more,  even,  than  your  Majesty  has  been 

Among  my  pleasures  in  reading  your  Majesty's  translation  of  the 
"  Divina  Commedia,"  in  the  beautiful  copy  of  the  new  edition  you 
sent  me  last  winter,  and  now  again  in  reading  a  copy  which  Long- 
fellow has  sent  me  of  his  English  version,  is  a  revival  of  the  recol- 
lection of  those  charming  evenings  in  your  palace,  above  thirty  years 
ago,  when,  with  Cams  and  Forster,  I  listened  to  Tieck  as  he  read, 
at  each  session,  a  canto  of  the  Commedia,  just  as  it  had  come  fresh 
and  warm  from  your  hand,  while  we  each  of  us  sat  with  the  original 
Italian,  and  suggested  any  alterations  that  might  occur  to  either  of 
us.  I  shall  never  forget  the  conscientious  kindness  with  which  you 
listened  to  the  little  we  could  say,  what  careful  discussions  fol- 
lowed every  doubt,  how  admirably  Tieck  read,  and  how  delight- 
ful and  instructive  the  whole  was.  A  full  generation  of  men  —  as 
generations  have  been  reckoned  from  Homer's  time  do^Ti  —  has 
since  passed  away,  and  with  it  Tieck  and  Forster,  —  a  fact  not  so 
remarkable,  certainly,  as  that  the  three  others  still  survive.  But 
Cams  must  be  very  old.  Does  he  still  preserve  the  faculties  which 
L.    so  long  distinguished  him  1     Is  he  well  I  "^ 

Among  the  changes  of  life,  be  assm-ed  that  Mrs.  Ticknor  and  my- 
self do  not  fail  to  hear  mth  grieved  sympathy  of  the  hea^y  sorrows 

*  This  seems  an  appropriate  place  to  introduce  a  memorandum  made  about 
this  period  by  Mr,  Ticknor,  recalling  one  of  the  pleasures  of  his  middle  life. 
J"  "  The  little  meetings  at  Prince  John's  were,  I  believe,  sometimes  called  the 

'Academia  Dantesca,'  and  extended  through  the  years  when  the  Prince  was 
making  his  translation,  I  went  to  only  two  or  thi'ee  of  them,  in  the  winter 
of  1835-36,  and  never  met  anybody  at  them,  except  Tieck,  Dr.  Cams,  and 
Karl  Forster,  though  I  believe  other  persons  were  occasionally  there,  especially 
the  Mit-Regent,  afterwards  King  Frederic.  I  think  there  are  notices  of  them 
in  the  Life  of  Forster,  1846,  where  I  am  kindly  remembered  as  meeting  him  at 
the  Prince's,  which  I  never  did  except  on  these  occasions,  Forster  was  an 
excellent  Italian  scholar,  and  translated,  as  early  as  1807,  from  Dante.  So  was 
Carus,  who  made  a  plan  of  the  '  Divina  Commedia,'  of  which  he  gave  me  a 
copy  still  to  be  found  in  my  large  paper  Landino.  Tieck  was  not  so  exact  in 
his  Italian  as  they  were,  but  was  more  genial  and  agreeable,"  Forster  says 
of  Mr,  Ticknor,  "  I  see  him  often,  and  grow  ever  fonder  of  him,"  and  admires 
the  direct  simplicity  and  'Hionest  handshake  "  of  his  greeting  to  the  Prince  as 
*'a  good  contrast  to  our  forms." 


^.  76.]  ENGLISH  AFFAIRS.  481 


tliat  befall  your  Majesty's  house  and  home.  So  happy  a  (^t()Ui>  oi'  fine 
children  as  we  first  knew  gathered  around  you,  and  afterwards  a  fam- 
ily circle  grown  up  into  beauty  and  strength.  And  now  only  three 
left !  .  .  .  . 

Pray  express  to  the  Queen  our  sincere  sympathy.  We  should  be 
ungrateful  indeed  if  we  did  not  feel  it,  after  all  the  kindness  we 
received  in  Dresden  from  your  whole  family.  Remember  us,  too,  to 
the  Princess  Amelia,  who  was  so  considerate  to  us,  not  only  at  home, 
but  when  we  met  her  afterwards  in  Florence,  and  whose  works  are 
kept  among  our  pleasant  reading  and  that  of  our  friends. 

Preserve  us,  I  pray  you,  in  your  kind  recollections,  and  believe  me 

■ 

to  be  always,  very  faithfully  and  affectionately. 

Your  Majesty's  friend  and  serv^ant, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 

To  Sir  Edmuxd  Head,  London. 

Boston,  Januarj'  8,  1868. 

My  dear  Head,  —  The  new  year  must  not  get  on  any  farther  with- 
out my  recognizing  that  I  owe  you  a  good  deal  of  happiness,  and 
wishing  you  a  great  deal  more.  I  think  I  ^vTote  to  you  last,  just 
after  we  came  to  town  in  the  late  autumn  ;  but  whether  I  did  or  not, 
I  want  to  hear  from  you  again.  If  we  had  not,  in  the  mean  time, 
heard  of  Lady  Head's  recovery,  I  should  have  claimed  a  letter  sooner. 
But  we  want  to  hear  about  all  of  you,  —  not  forgetting  yourself. 

We  want  to  hear,  too,  about  what  you  are  doing  in  Parliament,  and 
in  politics.  I  do  not  half  like  the  position  of  your  affairs,  and  still 
less  their  promise.  Your  Sheffield  troubles  with  their  branches,  and 
your  Fenians  everywhere  look  dark.  The  two  movements  come  from 
different  motives,  and  tend  in  difterent  directions,  but  there  is  a  com- 
mon ground  of  radicalism  and  disorder,  on  which  they  can  too  easily 
coalesce.  If  you  ever  do  have  an  upturning  of  society  from  its  foun- 
dations in  England,  I  have  alwavs  believed  that  vour  revolution  will 
be  bloodier  than  the  French.  Your  upper  classes  have  a  great  deal 
more  principle,  character,  and  courage  ;  and  your  lower  classes  are 
much  less  easy  to  satisfy,  and  have  more  definite  political  notions,  — 
more  training  for  a  revolution,  —  and  less  religion.  Tell  me  that  I 
am  mistaken.     I  want  to  be. 

I  need  not  tell  you  how  we  get  on  here  ;  for  you  know,  without 
my  help,  what  we  have  done  and  what  we  are  doing  ;  and  nobody 
can  predict  what  we  shall  do 

VOL.  II.  21  EE 


482  ,  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOPw  [1868. 

We  have  bad  some  of  your  young  countrymen  here  lately,  who 
seem  to  look  upon  us  as  a  political  mine,  that  is  to  be  wrought  for  the 
benefit  of  the  rest  of  the  world  :  Mr.  Strutt,  —  son  of  Lord  Eayleigh, 
—  Lord  Morley,  Lord  Amberley  with  his  free-spoken  wife,  Lord  Cam- 
perdown,  Mr.  Cowper,  Mr.  Hollond,  and  some  others,  with  Miss  Suli- 
van, — a  niece  of  Lord  Palmerston,  an  uncommonly  lady-like,  cultivated 
woman.  They  were  all  in  my  library  one  night  together,  and  I  have 
not  seen  so  intellectual  a  set  of  young  Englishmen  in  the  United 
States  since  Lord  Stanley,  Denison,  Labouchere,  and  Wharncliffe  were 
here,  five-and-twenty  years  ago.  Strutt  was  senior  ^\Tangier  at  Cam- 
bridge a  few  years  since  ;  Morley  was  about  as  high  at  Oxford  ;  and 
Cowper,  Hollond,  and  Camperdown  were  evidently  men  who  stood, 
or  meant  to  stand,  on  the  intellectual  qualities 

Agassiz  and  his  wife  are  just  about  to  publish  a  book  —  only  one 
volume  —  on  Brazil.  You  must  read  it,  for  it  is  full  of  matter,  very 
pleasantly  presented.  We  have  just  finished  it,  in  what  they  call  an 
"advance  copy,"  and  the  two  Annas  have  enjoyed  it  as  much  as  I 
have. 

Lady  Head,  I  am  sure,  will  like  it.  But  you  know  how  fond  we  are 
of  Agassiz,  and  perhaps  we  like  the  book  overmuch,  especially  as  we 
have  been  reading  it  in  an  "  advance  copy,"  as  such  things  are  called, 
and  so  have  had  nobody  to  moderate  our  opinion. 

We  are  all  well,  grandchildren  and  all  ;   and  all  who  have  ever 

seen  you  and  yours  send  you  affectionate  regards. 

Ever  yours, 

Geo.  Ticknok. 

To  Hon.  Edward  Twisleton. 

Boston,  March  22,  1868. 
My  dear  Twisleton,  —  Your  sad  letter  *  came  at  the  proper  time, 
and  I  have  desired  ever  since  to  answer  it,  but  I  have  felt  that  I 
could  not  do  it  without  a  considerable  effort,  and  so  I  have  kept  post- 
poning it  under  the  vain  hope  that  time  would  make  it  easier.  It 
does  not ;  such  things  are  not  easy  at  76-7.  I  was  really  attached 
to  Sir  Edmund  Head ;  and  as  the  attachment  came  late  in  life,  and 
was  formed  after  our  tastes  and  opinions  were  matured,  the  idea  of  its 

*  Sir  Edmund  Head  died  very  suddenly,  of  disease  of  the  heart,  on  the  28th 
of  January,  and  Mr.  Ticknor  felt  the  loss  of  his  friendsliip  deeply.  The  verses 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Twisleton,  are,  he  says,  "by  Bland,  of  the  Greek  Anthology, 
which,  among  others,  Bland  wrote  in  reference  to  himself,  under  the  impression 


^.77.]  DEATH  OF  SIR  EDMUND  HEAD.  483 


termination  never  seemed  to  be  one  of  its  elements.  Certainly,  I 
think,  it  never  occurred  to  me  that  I  should  survive  him,  though,  per- 
haps, I  had  sometimes  worse  fears  than  that. 

What  you  tell  me  of  his  own  anticipations,  founded  on  the  verses 
of  Bland,  which  he  so  long  recollected,  falls  in  with  my  own  impres- 
sions, and  with  what  he  intimated  to  me  more  than  once  in  two  visits 
of  some  length  which  we  made  to  him  in  Canada.  I  think  he  feared 
a  slow  decay  of  his  faculties,  with,  perhaps,  a  long  life.  Yet  he  was 
so  full  of  physical  strength,  which  he  delighted  to  enjoy  in  the  most 
vigorous  bodily  exercises,  and  he  took  such  pleasure  in  the  resources 
of  his  marvellous  memory,  as  well  as  in  a  sort  of  general  intellectual 
activity,  which  he  spread  over  so  many  subjects  of  elegant  cidture,  as 
well  as  of  judicial  and  administrative  policy,  that  I  never  much  shared 
his  own  apprehensions  or  those  of  his  friends. 

To  Hon.  Edward  Twisleton. 

Boston,  April  29,  1869. 

My  dear  Twisleton,  —  Don't  give  me  up  because  I  have  gro^ra 
old.  At  77-8  a  man  does,  not  what  he  most  likes  to  do,  but  what 
he  is  able  to  do  ;  and  I  am  not  able  to  do  the  half  of  what  I  could  in  a 
day  only  a  few  years  ago,  nor  half  as  well  as  then.  A  long  time  be- 
fore I  came  to  this  conclusion  good  old  Dr.  Jackson,  whom  you  must 
remember,  told  me,  in  one  of  the  last  visits  he  ever  made  me,  that  he 
was  reduced  to  one  third.  It  seemed  to  me  very  strange,  but  I  now 
find  that  my  time  is  come,  and  coming.  I  feel  constantly  a  great 
weariness,  and  avoid  all  the  work  I  can,  except  reading,  of  which  I 
have  not  yet  begun  to  tire.  I  hope  it  will  last  me  out,  especially  my 
love  of  old  books  ;  but  I  do  not  know.     I  care  little  about  new  ones. 

During  the  year  past  you  have  been  very  good  to  me,  and  I  take 
much  pleasure  in  acknowledging  it. 

that  he  should  not  live  long."  Sir  Edmund  repeated  them,  nearly  word  for 
word,  after  an  interval  of  tv.-enty-five  years,  having  only  heard  them  recited 
once.    They  are  as  follows  :  — 

"  While  others  set,  thy  sun  shall  fall ; 

Night  without  eve  shall  close  on  thee  : 
And  he  who  made,  with  sudden  call 
Shall  bid,  and  thou  shalt  cease  to  be. 

"  So  whispers  Nature,  whispers  Sorrow : 
And  I  would  preet  the  things  they  say. 
But  for  the  thought  of  those  whose  morrow 
Haugs  trenibliug  on  my  little  day." 


484  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1S69. 

Yoiu"  letter  alDout  Mr.  Herman  Merivale  came  before  he  did,  which 
I  think  is  always  an  agreeable  circumstance  in  letters  of  introduction. 
I  was  very  glad  to  see  him  again,  and  liked  him  better  the  more  I 
knew  of  him.  He  was  a  good  deal  with  us,  and  I  did  for  him  gladly 
what  I  could  during  the  few  days  he  stayed  here.  When  you  see 
him,  pray  give  him  our  kind  regards,  and  ask  him  to  come  again. 

I  thank  you,  too,  for  a  copy  of  the  thirteenth  report  of  the  Civil 
Service  Commissioners.  It  is  very  interesting  and  curious.  But  I 
did  something  better  with  it  than  look  it  carefully  over,  and  learn 
what  I  could  from  it.  I  put  it  into  the  hands  of  an  old  friend  of 
mine,  General  Thayer,  who  made  West  Point  all  that  it  is,  and  who, 
though  above  eighty-four  years  old,  and  therefore  no  longer  able  to 
make  anything  else,  is  doing  what  he  can  to  have  a  similar  system  of 

examination  for  office  introduced  here But  though  we  need 

this  system  more  than  any  other  country,  it  will  be  difficult  to  estab- 
lish it  among  us.  Those  who  have  the  power  are  naturally  unwilling 
to  give  it  up,  and  will  make  a  good  fight  to  keep  it.  Still,  there  are 
so  many  more  that  want  to  have  men  both  of  ability  and  of  honesty 
to  do  their  work  for  them  in  public  affairs,  that  I  do  not  despair 
The  copy  you  sent  me  of  your  report  on  the  subject  — going  far  back, 
as  it  does,  and  giving  results  —  has  done  good  service. 

No  doubt,  like  any  other  system,  it  has  its  weak  side,  when  it  is 
brought  to  the  test  of  a  wide  experience.  The  higher  offices,  I  sup- 
pose, cannot  be  reached  by  it,  and  for  those  of  less  consequence  the 
qualities  you  can  ascertain,  by  any  prearranged  system  of  inquiries, 
will  somewhat  restrict  the  range  of  your  subsequent  choice  for  office, 
and,  therefore,  sometimes  prevent  you  from  taking  the  person  best 

fitted  for  the  office  you  want  to  fill I  am  told,  too,  that  some 

persons  refuse  to  submit  to  examinations  for  places  in  India  and  else- 
where, who  have  yet  good  qualifications  for  them,  and  would  seek 
them  under  other  circumstances,  or  might  be  sought  for  them.  Yet 
I  cannot  but  think  you  get  a  safer  class  of  men,  on  the  whole,  even  in 
the  Foreign  Office,  where  I  suppose  your  attaches  may  claim  a  regu- 
lar advancement,  which  may  sometimes  lead  to  awkward  results.  At 
least,  I  feel  sure  that  we  should  in  this  country  do  better 

I  hope  you  will  write  to  me  again  before  long  ;  and  that  when  you 
do  you  will  tell  me  about  Lady  Head  and  her  daughters.  Mean- 
time, if  you  see  them,  pray  give  them  our  affectionate  regards.  We 
think  of  them  and  speak  of  them  often.  Only  yesterday  I  read  over 
Su^  Edmund's  beautiful  verses  on  a  Pan-Athenaic  vase. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


M.  78.]  "  LIFE  OF  WEBSTER."  485 


In  1869  Mr.  George  Ticknor  Curtis  had  in  press  his  "  Life  of 
AYebster,"  and  Mr.  Ticknor  gave  careful  perusal  to  both  manu- 
script and  proof-sheets  of  this  work,  in  which  he  took  a  deep  in- 
terest. A  great  number  of  short  letters  and  many  pages  of  mem- 
oranda, in  his  handwriting,  testify  to  the  fidelity  and  industry 
with  which  he  performed  this  labor  of  love.  The  following  will 
serve  as  a  specimen  of  his  tone. 

To  George  T.  Curtis,  Esq. 

Brookldte,  July  30,  1869. 

My  dear  George,  —  Your  letter  of  the  26th  came  yesterday,  and 
the  proof  I  enclose  came  kite  this  forenoon 

On  reading  the  proofs  I  am  more  and  more  struck  with  the  fact, 
that  the  events  you  relate,  most  of  which  have  happened  in  my  time, 
seem  to  me  to  have  occurred  much  longer  ago  than  they  really  did. 
The  civil  war  of  '61  has  made  a  great  gulf  between  what  happened 
before  it  in  our  century  and  what  has  happened  since,  or  what  is 
likely  to  happen  hereafter.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  as  if  I  were  liv- 
ing in  the  country  in  which  I  was  born,  or  in  which  I  received  what- 
ever I  ever  got  of  political  education  or  principles.  Webster  seems 
to  have  been  the  last  of  the  Eomans  ;  and  yet  he,  too,  made  mistakes. 
But  I  hope  you  will  give  a  good  prominence  to  his  solemn  protest  in 
the  Senate  against  the  annexation  of  Texas.  It  is  one  of  the  grandest 
things  he  ever  did 

But  I  am  interrupted.  William  Gardiner,  Mrs.  Cabot,  etc.,  and 
dimier  immediately  ;  in  short,  nothing  before  the  post,  but. 

Ever  yours,  and  all  well, 

Geo.  T. 

To  Sir  Walter  C.  Treveltan,  Bart. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  August  31,  1869. 
My  dear  Trevelyan,  —  My  silence  is  not  forgetfidness,  neither  is 
it  ingratitude  ;  it  is  simply  old  age.  I  am  past  seventy-eight,  and, 
like  nearly  everybody  of  that  age,  I  do,  not  what  I  like  best  to  do, 
but  what  I  can.  I  cannot  walk  much,  and  I  forget  a  great  deal,  and 
I  write  as  little  as  I  can.  Eeading  is  my  great  resource,  and  I  have 
lately  been  much  amused  with  Crabbe  Robinson,  who  is  a  model  for 
old  men,  as  far  as  their  strength  holds  out.     But  your  letter  to  me. 


486  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1869. 

written  above  a  year  ago,  full  of  kindness  and  interesting  facts,  was 
as  welcome  to  me  as  ever,  and  so  was  the  remarkable  "  Canterbury 
Eeport,"  with  its  marvellously  condensed  appendix,  which  came  a 
few  days  ago.  On  both  I  must  say  a  word,  for  I  think,  even  from 
your  letter,  that  you  like  to  hear  talk  on  the  suppression  of  intemper- 
ance better  than  on  almost  anything  else.  Indeed,  it  has  long  been  a 
main  object  with  you  in  life,  —  certainly  a  most  worthy  one. 

And,  first,  you  seem  in  Great  Britain  to  have  got  hold  of  a  better 
and  more  effective  mode  of  contending  against  this  monstrous  evil 
than  we  have  in  Massachusetts  and  Maine  ;  for  you  come,  as  nearly 
as  you  can,  to  the  voluntary  principle,  which  seems  needful  in  all 
virtue,  and,  perhaps,  in  all  real  and  satisfactory  reform  in  manners 
and  morals.  But  when  union  of  efforts  is  necessary,  as  it  is  in  this 
case,  the  smaller  each  union  is,  in  moderate  numbers,  —  if  the  aggre- 
gate of  all  the  unions  is  numerous  enough,  —  the  more  likely  is  the 
main  general  purpose  to  be  carried.  The  most  formidable  political 
combination  of  our  times  was,  I  suppose,  the  "  Tugend-Bund "  of 
1808,  etc.,  because  it  consisted  of  an  immense  number  of  small  socie- 
ties, scattered  all  over  Germany,  but  little  connected  with  each  other 
except  by  their  one  great  object,  and  really  knowing  little  about  each 
other's  operations  and  mode  of  proceeding. 

Now,  if  I  understand  the  matter,  you  have  in  the  Pro\dnce  of  Can- 
terbury, —  embracing,  to  be  sure,  a  large  part  of  England,  —  above  a 
thousand  parishes,  hamlets,  etc.,  where  money  will  not  buy  the  means 
of  intoxication.  It  is  a  great  thing,  and  it  has  been  brought  about 
without  legislation. 

On  the  other  hand,  vje  are  attempting  to  compel  the  whole  million 
and  more  of  our  people  in  Massachusetts,  by  the  most  stringent  legis- 
lation, to  do  the  same  thing,  —  i.  e.  to  stop  the  sale  of  all  intoxicating 
liquors.  But  no  people,  and  especially  no  people  li\'ing  under  such 
free  institutions  as  ours,  can  thus  be  driven.  It  is  a  moderate  state- 
ment to  say,  that  in  Massachusetts  the  "  Liquor  Law,"  as  it  is  called, 
is  broken  a  hundred  thousand  times  a  day.  In  Boston,  I  think  any 
man  can  get  what  he  wants,  from  a  pipe  of  wine  to  a  glass  of  beer, 
whenever  he  likes,  and  as  often  as  he  likes.  Now  this  is  a  bad  thing 
for  the  law,  the  courts,  and  the  police  generally  ;  and  it  is  the  worse 
because  a  sort  of  moral  foundation  is  claimed  for  disregarding  such  a 
law,  —  I  mean,  because  it  is  claimed  that  it  makes  only  one  party  an 
offender,  when  both  parties  are  ;  since,  if  I  buy  a  bottle  of  wine,  I 
tempt  the  seller  to  do  wrong  for  gain,  and  so  become  a  party  to  the 
offence. 


^.  78.]  THIEBAUT  DE  CHAMPAGNE.  487 


But  I  will  not  carry  any  more  coal  to  Newcastle.  You  know,  from 
your  very  able  periodicals  and  discussions  on  the  subject,  what  we  are 
doing  in  Massachusetts  as  well  as  we  do  ourselves.  What  you  have 
sent  me  from  time  to  time  proves  it.  I  only  wish  you  would  tell  me 
what  you  think  of  our  modus  operandi,  as  compared  with  yours.  If 
anything  is  published  here  that  I  think  you  will  like  to  see,  and  are 
not  likely  to  get  as  soon  as  you  will  care  to  have  it,  I  will  send  it  to 
you  at  once.  This  is  very  possible,  nowadays,  for  the  licpior  fpiestion 
is  getting  mixed  up  with  our  general  politics,  which  it  never  ought  to 
be,  any  more  than  a  question  in  religion.  But  such  things  can  rarely 
be  avoided  in  so  free  institutions  as  ours,  —  perhaps  not  in  yours 

What  you  tell  me  of  Thiebaut  de  Champagne  is  very  curious,  and  ' 
much  of  it  new.  He  was  always  one  of  my  favorites,  from  1817,  when 
I  studied  the  earliest  French  literature  in  Paris,  under  the  advice  of 
Roquefort  and  Raynouard,  and  made  such  collections  of  books  as  they 
told  me  to  make.  But  I  never  heard  before  the  tradition  that  he 
brought  home  with  him  from  Palestine  the  "Provence  Rose,"  which 
we  cultivate  here  in  a  country  Thiebaut  never  dreamt  of  ;  nor  did  I 
ever  suppose  that  there  were  such  remains  of  the  ancient  splendor  of 
Provence  as  you  describe.  Please  to  tell  me,  therefore,  when  you 
write,  —  and  I  hope  that,  remembering  my  age,  you  will  write  before 
long,  —  please  to  give  me  the  titles  of  anything  published  within  the 
last  twenty  years  about  the  old  Chansonnier,  if  it  will  give  you  no  ^ 
trouble  to  do  it.  You  see  I  remember  vour  old  tricks  in  Italv,  col- 
lecting  all  sorts  of  books  of  local  history  in  out-of-the-way  places. 

I  do  not  know  Mr.  Briajht  of  Walthaiii,  to  whom  vou  refer  ;  but  I 
know  his  book  about  his  English  —  not  his  American  —  ancestors, 
and  looked  in  it  directly  for  the  engraving  of  the  house  where  you 
were  married.  It  is  very  curious,  as  are  many  books  of  our  genealo- 
gies, tracing  the  connection  between  our  two  countries.  I  only  wish 
there  were  more  proofs  of  such  connection  doA\Ti  to  our  own  times, 
and  that  they  were  heartier 

But  I  think  I  have  written  as  much  as  my  strength  will  fairly 
enable  me  to  write  at  one  time.     I  will  not,  therefore,  go  on  even  to 

« 

say  a  word,  as  I  meant  to,  about  the  Oxford  and  Harvard  Race,  except 
to  add,  that  we  are  surprised  at  the  immense  interest  it  excited  ;  and 
that  we  can  hardly  hope,  if  your  young  men  come  here  next  year,  as  I 
hope  they  will,  that  we  can  receive  them  with  equal  fervor.  But  as 
for  manly  kindness  and  honor,  I  think  we  can  promise  all  that  any- 
body will  desii-e.  Youi's  faithfully, 

Geo.  Ticknor. 


488  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1S69. 


To  J.  G.  Cogswell,  Esq. 

Bkookline,  September  7,  1869. 
My  dear  Cogswell,  —  ....  We  had  a  most  agreeable  visit  from 
Mrs.  Barton  *  and  you,  and  would  gladly  tiave  had  more  of  it.  In- 
deed, we  had  more  from  her,  for  she  came  again  yesterday,  and  spent 
an  hour  or  two  more  talking  about  "  the  books."  She  is  a  charming 
w^oman,  as  she  always  was,  and  does  not  look  nearly  so  old  as  I  am 
obliged  to  remember  that  she  must  be. 

She  read  me  a  paper  which  she  had,  I  think,  sho\\Ti  you,  drawn  up 
as  skilfully  as  her  father  would  have  done  it,  and  told  me  that  you 
were  to  have,  for  a  fortnight,  the  two  catalogues  she  brought  here 
when  she  came  with  you  on  Saturday.  I  wish  the  books  in  both 
were  well  settled  on  the  shelves  of  the  Boston  Library.f  But  I  had 
no  opinions  to  give  her  different  from  those  I  gave  her  when  you 
were  present,  to  wit,  that  she  should  make  up  her  opinion  from  the 

best  information  she  can  get 

As  j)roperty  the  collection  is,  no  doubt,  valuable,  and  she  does  not 
purpose  to  part  with  it  without  a  proper  compensation.  But  she  can 
easily  find  out  its  value.     You  are  to  help  her,  and  I  am  very  glad  of 

it,  for  I  cannot 

The  principal  matter,  of  course,  is  the  Shakespeare  collection.  She 
says  that  Rodd  told  her  husband  fifteen  years  ago  that  it  was  the  fifth 
most  important  Shakespeare  Library  in  the  world.  It  must,  I  sup- 
pose, be  higher  on  the  list  now.  At  any  rate,  there  will  be  nothing 
like  it  in  this  country  for  many  a  year,  if  there  ever  is  ;  and  whoever 
on  this  side  of  the  j^.tlantic  wants  to  write  carefully  and  well  about 
Shakespeare  or  the  old  English  drama,  must  sit  down  by  the  Barton 
books  and  study  his  subject  there,  or  else  go  to  England. 

But  I  think  Mrs.  Barton  is  not  only  a  very  winning  and  attractive 
person,  but  that  she  has  in  her  character  a  great  deal  of  her  mother, 
who  was  one  of  the  most  intelligent  and  acute  women  I  ever  knew, 
and  of  her  father,  who  made  the  Code  for  Louisiana,  and  who,  as  Gen- 
eral Jackson's  Secretary  of  State,  wrote  the  famous  proclamation.  I 
think,  tlierefore,  that  she  needs  little  help  in  such  a  matter  as  that  of 

*  Formerly  Miss  Cora  Livingston,  daughter  of  Mrs.  Edward  Livingston.  See 
Yol.  I.  pp.  350,  351. 

t  The  "  Barton  Library,"  containing  both  the  Shakespeare  collection  and  the 
miscellaneons  library  here  mentioned,  is  now  among  the  treasures  of  the  Boston 
Public  Library.  It  was  purchased  from  Mrs.  Barton  shortly  before  her  death, 
in  1873. 


M.  78.]  OLD  FRIENDS.  489 

the  books,  wliicli  she  knew  all  about  in  her  husband's  lifetune,  and 

all  whose  opinions  about  them  are  familiar  to  her.     She  will  not 

make  mistakes,  nor  do  I  mean  to  make  that  of  thinking  that  I  know 

more  than  she  and  you  do. 

Yours  ever. 


Geo.  Ticknor. 


To  General  S.  Thayer. 


Boston,  January  26,  1870. 

My  very  dear  old  Friexd,  —  Thank  you  for  your  inquiry  ;  to 
which  I  can  only  reply,  that  the  New  Year  begins  as  well  as  the  Old 
Year  leaves  off,  except  that  it  makes  me  no  younger,  but  adds  to  my 
days,  which  get  to  be  rather  bui'thensome.  However,  that  is  no  mat- 
ter ;  I  eat  well,  drink  well,  and  sleep  well  ;  I  can  read  all  the  time, 
and  do  it  ;  but  as  to  walking,  it  is  nearly  among  the  lost  arts.  But 
you  must  come  and  see. 

I  hear  of  you  in  town  now  and  then,  and  hope  for  you  constantly. 
Mr.  Minot,  who  is  older  than  you  are,  gets  up  the  hill  every  now  and 
then  ;  and  the  other  day  absolutely  met  here  Judge  Phillips,  from 
Cambridge,  who  is  quite  as  old  as  he  is.  So  I  do  not  despair.  Prac- 
tically, you  are  younger  than  I  am.  So  is  Cogswell ;  but  he  moves 
as  little,  almost,  as  I  do. 

We  all,  from  my  wife  do^wn,  send  our  love  to  you,  and  want  to  see 
you.  We  shall  not  any  of  us  have  such  another  winter  to  move  about 
in,  —  hardly  many  daj'S  like  to-day.  Look  out,  therefore,  for  to- 
morrow. 

Yours  from  1804-5, 

Geo.  Tickxor. 

To  THE  King  of  Saxony. 

Boston,  U.  S.  A.,  September  29,  1870. 
Sire,  —  Your  Majesty  is  called  to  great  jirivate  suffering,  as  well  as 
to  great  public  anxieties.  We  have  just  received  a  notice  of  the  death 
of  your  excellent  sister,  the  Princess  Amelia,  and  we  well  know  what 
sorrow  this  brings  upon  you  and  your  house.  She  was  so  good,  so  in- 
tellectual, so  agreeable.  Be  assured  that  we  sympathize,  in  my  home, 
with  this  your  great  affliction.  AVe  can  never  forget  the  constant 
kindness  of  the  Princess  to  us  when  we  lived  in  Dresden,  and  when 
we  met  her  in  Florence.  All  of  my  family  who  recollect  her,  as  well 
as  younger  members  who  never  had  the  happiness  to  see  her,  and  very 
21* 


490  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1870. 

many  jDersons  in  my  country,  are  familiar  with  her  charming  dramas, 
and  estimate,  as  they  should,  the  bright  light  that  has  been  extm- 
guished.  We  have  indeed  known  little  of  the  Princess  Amelia's  life 
for  the  last  two  or  three  years,  but  none  the  less  do  we  know  how 
her  loss  will  be  felt  by  those  who  were  constantly  near  her,  and 
shared  her  daily  kindness  and  thoughtful  love.  For  such  a  loss  there 
is  no  sufficient  preparation.  It  may  have  been  long  anticipated,  but 
it  comes  as  a  shock  at  last.  We  can  only  submit,  and  be  gratefid.  for 
the  life  that  preceded  it. 

Most  heartily,  too,  do  we  sympathize  with  yoiu'  Majesty  and  your 
people  in  the  great  and  terrible  changes  now  going  on  in  Europe, 
....  AYe  can  all,  now,  cordially  congratulate  your  Majesty  on  the 
great  recent  successes  of  your  comitry  in  the  war  which  has  been  so 
unjustifiably  brought  upon  you,  and  can  trust  confidingly  in  their 
contmuance.  In  my  house  we  watch  daily  for  the  accounts  of  what 
is  done  by  the  Saxon  troops,  and  rejoice  cordially  as  we  see  how  your 
sons  and  your  subjects  have  distinguished  themselves,  their  King,  and 
their  country. 

Our  last  accounts,  on  which  we  can  rely,  are  of  the  surrender  of 
Strasburg.  But  we  receive  daily,  by  the  Cable,  stories  of  what  was 
done  twenty-four  and  thuty-six  hours  earlier,  in  this  terrible  war  ; 
some  true,  more,  probably,  false.  Still,  whatever  we  hear,  be  assured 
that  we  are  interested  for  Saxony,  that  we  always  desire  your  welfare, 
your  success,  your  honor,  and  that  we  can  never  cease  to  sympathize 
deeply  in  whatever  may  befall  you,  or  to  pray  God  for  your  protec- 
tion and  happiness 

Be  assured  that  I  remain,  faithfully  and  affectionately. 

Your  friend  and  servant, 

George  Ticknor. 

From  his  Majesty,  the  King  of  Saxony. 

Wesenstein,  the  17  October,  1870. 
Dear  Sir,  —  I  have  received,  some  days  ago,  your  letter  of  the  29th 
of  September,  and  was  astonished  to  see  that  you  were  already  ac- 
quamted  with  the  death  of  my  poor  sister.  My  answer  to  your  last 
letter  seemed  not  yet  to  have  reached  you,  and  I  am  uncertain  if  it 
was  written  before  or  after  this  lamentable  event.  I  thank  you 
heartily  for  the  part  you  take  in  my  sorrow,  and  for  all  you  say  on 
account  of  the  dear  departed.  It  was  for  me,  and  for  us  all,  a  great 
loss  ;   for  me  particularly,  as  she  was  the  last  of  my  brothers  and  sis- 


M.  79.]  CLOSE  OF  CORRESPONDENCE.  491 

ters.  She  has  left,  in  the  whole  country,  a  very  good  memory.  Her 
last  years  were  very  retired.  In  the  year  1855  she  had  submitted  to 
an  operation  for  cataract,  which  relieved  her  at  least  of  the  almost 
complete  blindness  which  was  her  fate.  She  could  again  write  and 
read,  but  at  a  certain  distance  her  eye  —  the  one  was  entirely  lost  — 
was  very  feeble.  Since  this  time  she  had  abandoned  her  authorship. 
The  political  situation  of  the  last  period,  smce  1866,  preoccupied  her 
much,  and  I  believe  that  the  war  of  this  summer  has  much  contrib- 
uted to  abridge  her  life.  Yet  her  death  was  a  very  gentle  one.  She 
died  in  the  moment  when  the  priest  was  on  the  point  of  reaching 
her  the  sacrament,  almost  without  a  single  pang.  To  her  last  hour 
she  continued  a  true  friend  to  her  family,  and  a  siucere  and  pious 
Christian. 

I  wrote  you  already,  in  my  last  letter,  of  the  successes  of  our  arms 
and  the  honorable  part  which  my  troops  and  my  sons  have  taken  in 
it.  Now  they  are  before  Paris,  and  form  a  part  of  the  blockade  of 
this  immense  city.  May  God  give  us  soon  an  honorable  peace,  and 
put  an  end  to  the  bloodshed,  and  all  other  calamities  of  war.  The 
internal  confusion  in  France  is  a  difficulty  for  the  success  of  nego- 
tiations. 

Adieu,  dear  friend.    I  am,  with  the  sincerest  sentiments. 

Your  affectionate 

John.* 

*  Tliese  letters  closed  this  correspondence,  and  Mr,  Tickuor's  is  the  last,  from 
his  hand,  that  has  come  into  the  possession  of  his  family.  After  Mr.  Ticknor's 
death,  King  John  wrote  a  letter  of  condolence,  as  warm,  as  simple,  and  sincere 
as  any  received  at  that  time,  and  he  afterwards  went  over  the  whole  corre- 
spondence with  great  care,  both  his  own  and  Mr,  Ticknor's  letters,  with 
reference  to  the  present  memoir, — specified  which  of  his  own  letters  must  be 
excluded  from  publication,  and  gave  other  directions  which  have  been  diily 
observed.  A  year  after  Mr.  Ticknoi-'s  death,  Mr.  Charles  Eliot  Norton  was 
received  in  a  private  audience  by  the  King,  in  his  cabinet,  and  before  closing 
the  interview  his  Majesty  took  him  into  a  more  private  room,  —  where  all 
the  objects  gave  token  of  its  being  the  scene  of  his  secluded  labors  and  retire- 
ment, —  in  order  to  show  him  an  engraving  of  Mr.  Ticknor  hmig  there,  desiring 
him  to  tell  Mrs.  Ticknor  where  he  had  placed  it. 


492  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR.  [1871. 


CHAPTEE    XXV. 

Conclusion. 

O^  the  1st  of  August,  1870,  Mr.  Ticknor  entered  his  eigh- 
tieth year.  He  was  feeble,  but  free  from  any  distinct 
bodily  ailment.  The  heats  of  summer  reduced  his  strength,  and 
later  in  the  year  he  was  confined  to  his  bed  for  a  few  days  by  a 
passing  indisposition ;  but,  on  the  whole,  he  was  well,  though  he 
had  ceased  to  be  active,  to  rise  early,  or  to  walk  much.  All  the 
faculties  of  his  mind  were  clear.  Even  his  memory,  which  he 
himself  thought  imj^aired,  seemed  to  others  still  extraordinary, 
and  his  senses  were  aU  well  preserved,  save  for  a  slight  deafness. 
His  days  were  calm  and  cheerful ;  he  was  cordial  in  his  greet- 
ings to  his  friends  as  ever,  and  sitting  in  his  library,  surrounded 
by  the  treasures  he  had  so  faithfully  used,  he  thoroughly  enjoyed 
the  leisure  which  permitted  him  to  choose  from  among  them 
those  best  suited  to  the  taste  and  humor  of  the  moment.  "^ 

!N"ew  Year's  Day,  1871,  fell  on  Sunday,  but  he  had  some 
visitors  ^vith  whom  he  talked  with  his  former  animation.  Mr. 
Jefferson  Coolidge,  —  a  member  of  the  Friday  Club,  though 
much  younger  than  most  of  its  members,  —  who  spoke  of  being 
in  want  of  a  subject  for  reading,  asked  him  what  book  was 
interesting  him,  and,  putting  his  hand  on  a  volume  of  the  "  Life 
of  Scott,"  Mr.  Ticknor  said  he  was  reading  that  for  the  fourth 
time ;  and  then  went  on  to  speak  of  the  biographies  which 
make  our  knowledge  of  the  history  of  English  literature,  for 
the  half-century  or  more  that  opened  with  Dr.  Johnson,  more 
complete  than  for  any  other  period,  possibly  in  any  literature. 

*  He  caused  the  words  "  Libris  semper  amicis  "  to  "be  inscribed  on  the  "base 
of  a  little  statuette  of  him,  made  by  Martin  Milmore  as  a  compliment  and 
expression  of  gratitude. 


^.  79.]  LAST  DAYS.  493 

"  Take  Eos  well,"  he  said,  "  then  Southey's  Cowper,  tlie  lives 
of  Mackintosh/*  Scott,  Southey,  and  so  on,  and  the  memoirs 
are  so  rich." 

With  Mr.  Charles  Francis  Adams,  who  visited  him  that  even- 
ing, he  had  a  most  spirited  and  agreeable  conversation,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  ex]jatiated,  with  more  force  and  terseness  of 
expression  than  usual,  on  a  theory  which  had  for  some  time 
taken  strong  hold  on  his  thoughts.  He  said  that  the  ancient 
civilizations  of  the  world  had  been  undermined  and  destroyed  by 
two  causes,  —  the  increase  of  standing  armies,  and  the  growth 
of  great  cities  ;  and  that  modern  civilization  had  now  added  to 
these  sources  of  decay  a  third,  in  the  hypothecation  of  every 
nation's  property  to  other  nations.  He  also  sjDoke  with  earnest- 
ness of  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  European  people  with  all  their 
present  forms  of  government,  and  of  the  reasonableness  of  this 
discontent. 

The  next  day  friends  came  to  bring  him  the  greetings  of  the 
season,  and  he  dined  with  his  children  and  grandchildren,  who 
came  to  keep  the  little  festival  with  him.  Cut  on  the  third  day 
of  the  year  there  was  an  obvious  change  in  his  condition,  and 
the  first  signs  of  paralysis  —  though  slight  and  almost  doubtful 
—  showed  themselves.  So  gradual  was  the  progress  of  disease, 
that  for  some  days  he  still  saw  his  friends,  and  still  left  his  bed- 
room for  a  part  of  the  day,  his  mind  and  his  speech  not  being 
at  all  affected.  His  friend,  Dr.  Bigelow,  though  older  than 
himself,  took  a  share  in  the  medical  charge  of  his  case,  and 
made  him  daily  visits,  in  which  their  former  habits  of  humorous 
discussion  still  continued ;  and  once,  after  the  patient  was  con- 
fined to  bed,  the  two  old  classicists  were  heard  quoting  Greek 
together,  <^  Venvi  Vun  de  Vautre. 

Mr.  George  Ticknor  Curtis,  Avho  came  from  Xew  York  to  see 

*  This  memoir  had  a  particular  charm  for  Mr.  Ticknor  in  the  last  months 
of  his  life,  and  he  often  said,  as  he  laid  it  down,  that  it  seemed  to  liim  as  fresh 
and  interesting  as  in  the  first  of  his  several  readings  of  it.  Witli  the  "Life  of  ^ 
Scott "  he  continued  occupied  until  the  last,  having  just  reached  the  concluding 
volume  when  his  strength  failed,  and  even  then  desiring  to  have  it  read  to  him, 
thus  linking  his  last  hours  with  those  of  the  friend  and  the  object  of  admira-  -i 
tion  of  his  early  days. 


494  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKXOR.  [1S71. 

liis  uncle,  liaying  at  this  time  asked  for  and  obtained  from  liim 
a  coj)y  of  one  of  his  early  productions,  —  the  "  Life  of  Lafay- 
ette,"—  received  a  caution  about  it,  very  characteristic  of  the 
honest  exactness  in  matters  of  fact  for  Avliich  Mr.  Ticknor  was 
always  marked.  He  desired  Mr.  Curtis  to  turn  to  a  passage  in 
which  he  had  made  the  statement  that  the  Duke  of  Orleans 
(Egalite)  was  on  the  staircase  at  Yersailles  when  it  was  invaded 
by  the  mob,  and  Louis  XVI.  and  his  Queen  w^ere  carried  to 
Paris,  "  I  wish  you,"  he  said,  "  to  take  notice,  and  to  remem- 
ber that  this  statement  is  not  true.  When  I  wrote  and  printed 
it,  it  was  an  accepted  fact  in  the  history  of  the  time,  believed  all 
over  Europe  then,  and  for  a  long  while  afterwards.  But  subse- 
quent researclies  have  shown  that  the  Duke  was  not  there.  See 
to  it  that  the  passage  is  corrected." 

On  the  tenth  day  of  his  illness  he  was  moved  into  his  beloved 
library  for  the  last  time,  and  early  in  the  morning  of  the  26th 
of  January  he  ceased  to  breathe. 

And  so  gently  ended  a  long  life  which  had  been  filled  to  the 
brim  with  intellectual  activity,  and  with  labors  useful  to  the 
mental  life  of  his  time,  and  to  the  young  and  the  poor  around 
him.  He  died  without  suffering  or  long  decay ;  and,  like  his 
father,  he  was  ready  to  go ;  like  him,  when  he  came  to  his  death- 
bed, there  was  nothing  disturbing  his  mind,  "  he  had  nothing  to 
do  but  to  die." 

Looking  back  over  this  long  life,  we  see  an  unusual  consist- 
ency in  the  framework  of  mind  and  character  from  the  first ; 
an  unusually  steady  development  of  certain  elements  and  princi- 
ples ;  the  whole  structure  growing  with  a  symmetry  to  which 
the  freedom  from  external  impediments  contributed  much,  no 
doubt,  but  which  was  mainly  due  to  a  well-directed  and  very 
vigorous  individual  will.  Where  this  is  the  case,  it  is  difficult 
to  analyze  and  describe  the  combination  of  quahties  we  see,  and 
yet  avoid  too  much  eulogy. 

Taking  up  the  consideration  of  Mr.  Ticknor's  character  at  the 
period  of  his  first  return  from  Europe,  we  cannot  help  perceiv- 
ing the  danger  there  was  of  his  being  isolated  from  his  fellow- 
citizens  by  the  culture  he  had  gained  through  twofold  means ; 


M.  79.]  MENTAL  AND  MORAL  QUALITIES.  495 

through  his  brilliant  experience  in  European  society,  and  his  un- 
tiring use  of  that  and  of  all  his  other  opportunities.  It  is  quite 
certain,  however,  that  his  attractive  qualities,  with  his  sincere 
desire  to  be  useful  to  the  community,  saved  him  from  this  peril. 
He  had  earnestness  and  zeal,  entire  purity,  consciousness  of  high 
intentions,  and  a  resolute  will.  His  love  of  truth  and  right 
being  so  often  shocked,  his  hatred  of  baseness  or  corruption,  and 
distrust  of  fanatics  and  demagogues,  so  often  roused,  —  these  very 
virtues  sometimes  gave  him  an  appearance  of  intolerance  and 
loftiness ;  but  the  impression  passed  away,  if  the  person  receiv- 
ing it  had  any  further  opportunity  of  testing  Mr.  Ticknor's  char- 
acter and  bearing. 

His  special  mental  gifts,  a  quick  apprehension  and  a  retentive 
memory,  were  both  remarkable.  These  were,  as  they  generally 
are,  accompanied  by  a  thirst  for  acquisition,  which  his  parents 
had  naturally  developed  in  the  direction  of  literary  culture,  since 
they  possessed  it  in  some  measure  themselves,  and  were  accus- 
tomed to  stimulate  it  in  others.  We  can  see,  too,  indirectly,  in 
his  early  letter,  describing  Lord  Jeffrey's  visit  to  Boston,  what 
was  the  tone  of  conversation  and  manners  —  somewhat  measured 
and  formal,  but  full  of  thought  and  real  courtesy  —  that  pre- 
vailed in  the  then  small  town  where  he  Avas  born,  and  that 
tended  to  develop  the  qualities  and  resources  most  prized  in  his 
own  earlv  home. 

But  his  later  development  was  greatly  due  to  moral  quahties 
acting  on  and  directing  his  intellect ;  for  in  him  a  healthy  and 
manly  nature  Avas  trained,  even  in  the  atmosphere  of  an  indul- 
gent home,  to  self-control,  industry,  and  the  highest  respect  for 
truth  in  every  form.  These  three  elements,  joined  to  his  two 
special  mental  gifts,  made  him  a  scholar,  earnest,  exact,  disinter- 
ested, and  faithful ;  and  a  gentleman  whose  good-breeding  and 
most  winning  manners  caused  him,  from  the  early  period  of  his 
youth  when  he  first  passed  the  borders  of  his  native  Xew  Eng- 
land, to  be  welcomed  in  refined  society  everywhere. 

To  his  moral  qualities  it  was  due  that  he  continued  always 
in  an  attitude  of  inquiry,  always  craving  more,  and  more  exact 
knowledr^e,  and  that  he  held  himself,  until  he  was  twenty-eight 


'■o^^ 


496  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR. 

years  old,  in  a  process  of  education  such  as  most  youths  are  apt 
to  consider  unnecessary  after  twenty  or  twenty-one. 

When  he  was  young,  the  best  plea  it  seemed  possible  to  make 
before  the  bar  of  Europe  for  the  intellect  of  America  was,  that 
the  raw  material  was  abundant,  but  the  apj)liance3  for  educa- 
tion so  imperfect  that  originality  had  no  chance  of  obtaining 
justice,  for  want  of  scholarship  to  place  it  well  before  the  world. 
Mr.  Ticknor  felt  this  want ;  but  before  he  sought  to  supply  it 
abroad  he  had  proved,  that,  Avhen  the  eager  thirst  was  accom- 
panied by  certain  moral  attributes,  attainments  were  possible, 
even  here,  sufficient  to  place  their  possessor  in  full  communion 
with  the  more  fortunate  inhabitants  of  countries  which  offered 
every  means  of  mental  training. 

'No  better  discipline  of  mind  could  have  been  secured,  in  the 
most  famous  schools  and  universities,  than  was  attained  by  him 
wdth  the  defective  means  and  amidst  the  simple  customs  of  New 
England  at  the  beginning  of  this  century.  No  better  foundation 
for  success  of  the  highest  kind  could  have  been  laid  than  that 
which,  when  he  was  a  boy,  made  self-mastery,  integrity,  and 
love  of  work  the  essentials  of  his  daily  life  as  much  as  the  air 
he  breathed.  No  better  foundation  than  this  can  be  laid  for 
such  continual  progress  in  thought,  as  is  the  product  of  knowl- 
edge stored  and  methodized,  and  of  moral  purpose  always  rising 
as  the  knowledge  advances. 

To  his  moral  qualities,  again,  was  due  his  paramount  and  ob- 
vious purpose  of  making  his  knowledge,  his  experience,  and  his 
thought  of  use  to  others,  especially  to  the  young,  and  of  placing 
all  his  powers  at  the  service  of  his  fellow-men. 

The  great  vivacity  and  earnestness  of  his  nature  could  not, 
with  all  his  self-mastery,  be  always  restrained  from  too  great 
vehemence  and  pertinacity  in  discussion,  but  irritation  was  rarely 
made  obvious  in  words.  His  disinterested  aims  were  cherished  ; 
his  natural  cheerfulness  he  cultivated  as  a  part  of  the  require- 
ments of  manliness  and  kindness,  and  of  religion ;  therefore, 
though  he  was  often  disposed  to  be  anxious,  and  to  exercise 
great  caution  in  the  affairs  of  daily  life,  he  was  never  depressed 
or  discontented.     When  inevitable  trouble  or  annoyance  came, 


CHARACTERISTIC  TRAITS.  497 

in  large  matters  or  small,  he  held  his  peace ;  and  the  habit  of 
finding  grievances,  or  of  hiding  the  real  blessings  of  life  behind 
imaginary  ills,  was  far  from  his  disposition.  There  was  nothing 
affected  or  artificial  about  him,  for  his  whole  nature  was  too 
strong  and  sincere,  even  if  his  life-long  consideration  for  others 
had  not  checked  such  weakness ;  and  there  was  no  eccentricity 
in  his  ways. 

It  was  characteristic  of  his  wise  self-knowledge  and  resolute 
will,  that,  having,  like  many  other  men,  formed  the  opinion  that 
it  is  judicious  to  retire  from  responsibilities  and  duties  before 
the  judgment  is  weakened  by  age,  unlike  most  other  men,  he 
acted  on  this  opinion.  Four  or  five  years  before  his  death  he 
resigned  all  responsibilities  and  trusts,  even  giving  the  charge 
of  his  property,  at  last,  to  his  son-in-law,  and  employing  his 
daughter  in  small  matters  of  business,  by  which  she  gained  in- 
struction, but  of  which  he  must  have  been  reluctant  to  abandon 
even  the  practical  charge. 

Thus,  at  all  periods,  we  see  the  vigorous  will  and  the  \^gorous 
intellect  moulding  each  other. 

These  volumes  consist  so  much  of  the  writings  of  him  who  is 
their  subject,  that  his  opinions  and  qualities  are,  perhaps,  as 
fairly  shown  as  they  were  even  in  intimate  intercourse,  and, 
uniting  these  more  personal  and  private  compositions  with  his 
published  works,  his  intellectual  gifts  are  made  apparent.  That 
he  appreciated  wit  and  imagination,  without  possessing  them  -I 
in  large  measure,  and  that  his  taste  in  the  Fine  Arts  was  that 
of  a  healthy,  quick  intelligence,  carefully  trained  by  observa- 
tion, rather  than  a  spontaneous  instinct,  will  be  seen  without 
disparagement.  As  a  student  of  character,  he  was  vigilant, 
thoughtful,  and  kindly,  his  recorded  judgments  of  persons  being 
very  rarely  pointed  by  a  severe  remark  of  any  sort ;  or,  if  any 
severity  is  found  in  his  letters  and  journals,  it  is  sure  to  rest  on 
some  moral  ground.  He  was  not  disposed  to  be  satirical,  though 
he  was  sometimes  stern,  and  his  principle  was  always  to  weigh 
his  judgments  carefully  and  to  be  just.  If,  however,  he  had 
noted  a  fact  in  the  career  or  the  character  of  a  man  which  dis- 
tinctly indicated  a  moral  want  in  his  nature,  he  never  forgot  it. 


498  LIFE  OF  GEORGE  TICKNOR. 

The  welcome  he  received,  before  he  attained  his  majority, 
among  the  clever  men  of  his  own  community,  —  lawyers,  preach- 
ers, and  merchants  who  had  seen  the  world ;  Mr.  Jefferson's  ap- 
probation of  him  as  a  representative  of  American  youth,  shown 
by  his  voluntary  offer  of  letters  of  introduction  for  Europe ; 
Madame  de  StaeTs  determination,  after  her  children  had  seen 
him  enough  to  describe  him  to  her,  that  she  would  see  him 
whether  her  physicians  gave  permission  or  not,  —  are  but  the 
early  signs  of  the  attraction  and  resources  he  bore  about  him. 
His  early  experience  of  society  in  Paris  and  London  was  calcu- 
lated to  ingraft  on  the  somewhat  grave  and  formal  courtesy  of 
his  home  circle  more  promptitude  and  presence  of  mind  in  con- 
versation, and  to  introduce  the  same  element  into  the  expression 
of  that  deference  and  pohteness  which  are  the  unselfish  essence 
of  high  breeding.  ^ 

At  the  end  of  his  life  his  name  was  widely  known,  and  his 
character  and  intellect  were  respected  wherever  in  Europe  and 
America  they  were  familiar,  and,  after  its  close,  tokens  of  this 
were  abundantly  given  in  public  and  private  channels.  Societies 
honored  him ;  many  notices  of  him  appeared  in  the  public 
prints ;  the  poor  missed  his  ready  compassion.  But  among  the 
testimonies  called  forth  by  his  death  there  was  one  which  ex- 
pressed with  singular  felicity  a  thought  that  existed  in  many 
minds.  A  youth  of  seventeen,  who,  like  his  parents  and  grand- 
parents, was  familiar  in  Mr.  Ticknor's  house,  showed  his  father 
a  passage  in  Cicero's  "  De  Senectute  "  as  being  singularly  appli- 
cable to  their  venerable  friend,  especially  in  its  concluding  sen- 
tence :  "  Cujus  sermone  ita  turn  cupide  fruebar,  quasi  jam  divi- 
narem,  illo  extincto,  fore  unde  discerem  neminem,"  —  I  enjoyed 
his  conversation  as  if  I  had  had  a  presentiment  that  after  his 
death  there  would  be  no  one  from  whom  I  could  learn  any- 
thing. 


APPENDIX  A. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  THE  LETTERS  OF  MR.  ELISHA  TICKXOR  TO 
HIS  SON  GEORGE,  DURING  HIS  ABSENCE  IN  EUROPE, 
1815-1819. 

Boston,  Sunday  Evening,  April  16,  1S15. 

My  dearest  and  best  of  Sons,  —  I  hope,  and  pray  God,  that 
this  journey  may  terminate  for  you  better  than  any  one  has  to  those 
who  have  travelled  for  similar  purposes.  I  can't  but  believe,  —  Deo 
wlente,  —  should  you  improve  the  opportunities  put  into  your  hands, 
it  will  prove  greatly  to  your  advantage,  should  you  live  —  which  may 
God  grant  —  to  return  to  your  native  country  again.  Our  trial  on 
our  last  parting  was  more  than  we  could  bear  for  the  moment ;  but, 
overcome  as  we  were,  nothing  but  an  entire  reliance  on  God  could 
support  either  your  mother  or  me.  We  committed  you,  immediately 
on  your  quitting  our  shore  and  turning  your  eye  with  a  last  look  on 
our  to\vn  and  country,  to  God,  depending  on  him  for  support  and 
comfort,  and  relying  on  him  to  protect  and  encourage  your  heart 
while  absent,  and,  when  it  seemeth  to  him  good,  to  return  you  to  us 
again  in  safety  and  in  health. 

This  evening  the  good  man,  Mr.  Savage,  is  with  us.  He  is  good, 
or  he  would  not  have  been  here.  Your  note  by  the  pilot  is  just 
handed  to  us  by  the  goodness  of  JMr.  "Watson.  Thank  you  heartily 
for  this  favor,  for  this  little  remembrance.  We  had  better  do  as  you 
say,  my  son,  —  "  we  are  now  only  to  think  how  soon  we  shall  meet 
again."  This  little  scrap,  v/hich  contains  so  much,  is  a  precious  mor- 
sel to  us.  We  hope  you  will  do  your  best  to  unite  with  us  on  this 
point. 

Monday,  17.  —  How  often  have  we  thought  of  you,  my  dear  son, 
since  our  parting  hands  were  separated  !  The  weather  has  been  fine 
with  us.  The  moon  shone  bright,  and  the  heavens  seemed  to  favor 
your  departure,  and  to  tell  you,  while  you  are  doing  your  duty,  you 
have  nothing  to  fear. 


600  APPENDIX  A. 


Tuesday,  18.  —  .  .  .  .  I  liave  this  day  bought  four  yearling  ewes 
and  one  yearlmg  ram  of  the  Montarco  Merino  breed  flock,  which  I 
have  long  wished  to  be  interested  in.  I  now  own  Merinos  of  the 
three  great  travelling  flocks  of  Spain,  viz.  of  the  Guadaloup,  Paular, 
and  Montarco.  I  keep  them  in  distinct,  separate  flocks,  that  I  may 
know  in  a  few  years  which  flock  gives  the  finest  and  largest  fleece, 
and  keeps  in  flesh  and  health  with  the  least  trouble. 

Friday,  21.  —  ....  One  thing  I  forgot  to  recommend  to  you 
before  you  w^ent  away  ;  that  is,  to  use  technicals  in  conversation  much 
more  freely  than  you  have  been  m  the  habit  of  doing.  They  form, 
to  all  intents  and  purposes,  when  properly  used,  another  language, 
and  raise  a  man,  in  the  estimation  of  good  judges,  as  far  above  the 
common  level  of  literary  men,  as  they  are  raised  above  the  common 
level  of  the  vulgar.  I  don't  wish  you  to  use  them  on  all  occasions, 
however  trifling ;  but  never  talk  with  a  chemist,  a  botanist,  or  with 
philosophers  and  scientific  men,  without  being  able  to  use  them  as 
freely  as  you  are  able  to  use  your  alphabet. 

Monday,  24.  —  ....  You  have  now  commenced  a  great  under- 
taking. I  hope  it  has  been  begun  with  prudence  and  deliberation, 
and  that  it  will  terminate  without  any  regret  on  your  part.  All  you 
now  have  to  do  is,  to  be  honest,  to  be  faithful  to  yourself,  and  do  jus- 
tice to  your  credentials  ;  and  then,  if  you  live,  you  will  return  with 
great  pleasure  and  satisfaction  to  those  who  have  interested  them- 
selves in  your  favor.  Yours  is  no  common  case.  They  believe  you 
will  do  them  justice.  Travel  rather  in  the  manner  of  a  clergyman  — 
in  the  habit  and  simplicity  of  a  literary,  modest  gentleman,  which 
will  never  fail  of  recommending  you  wherever  you  go  —  than  in  the 
style  of  a  man  of  property,  of  one  at  leisure,  or  of  one  travelling  for 
pleasure  alone,  which  is  not  your  case. 

Thursday,  27.  —  I  have  just  heard  Captain  Koulstone  announce,  as 
he  passed  our  window,  this  morning,  that  Bonaparte  was  in  Paris,  at 
the  head  of  80,000  men.  Pho  ! !  It  may  be  true,  but  I  don't  believe 
it 

I  begin  to  be  quite  reconciled  to  your  absence,  in  the  anticipation 
of  what  you  will  be  when  you  return,  —  the  use  and  happiness  you 
will  be  to  me,  your  friends,  and  your  country.  A  short  absence  can 
be  of  no  use  to  you.  You  must  prepare  yourself  for  a  long  and  useful 
one  ;  and  I  am  sure  this  course  will  make  the  last  part  of  your  life 
pleasant  to  you,  and  honorable  to  me  and  yourself.  I  can  look  for- 
ward and  see  you,  every  week,  and  every  month,  employed  in  some 
part  of  Eiu'ope  in  acquiring  something  which  will  be  useful  and 


APPENDIX  A.  501 


pleasant  to  you  in  after  life.  So  long  as  you  continue  to  be  the  kind, 
discreet,  Avise,  and  dutiful  son,  so  long  I  shall  anticipate  all  I  can 
wish  in  one  who  has  been  so  long  devoted  to  the  wishes  of  his  parents 
and  friends  ;  and  so  long  I  shall  continue,  even  to  the  end  of  my  life, 
to  aid  and  assist  you,  and  make  the  path  of  life  easy  and  pleasant  to 
you 

August  9. —  .  .  .  .  The  great  object  of  your  journey  I  am  sure  you 
will  keep  in  mind,  and  never  turn  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left, 
viz.  to  improve  in  solid  science,  the  arts,  and  literature,  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  men,  as  well  as  to  learn  to  describe  the  former,  and  those 
of  the  latter,  on  paper  with  so  much  candor  and  justice  as  to  give 

pleasure  to  every  one  who  reads  after  you And  also,  from 

what  you  see  and  discover,  to  learn  how  to  improve  and  economize  in 
living,  so  as  to  live  genteelly,  respectably,  and  even  profusely  on  a 

small  and  narrow  income You  have  not  left  your  home  for 

the  sole  purpose  of  describing  the  la'^AT.is,  the  hills,  the  valleys,  the 
tops  of  mountains,  the  coluimis  of  smoke,  the  villages,  —  except  for 
amusement,  and  as  shades  to  ornament  your  other  improvements, 
which  may  be  often  and  happily  interspersed  ;  but  you  have  left  your 
father  to  grow  wiser  and  better,  —  to  learn  how  to  be  more  useful  to 
yourself,  your  friends,  and  your  country. 

November  6.  —  ....  Savage  comes  to  see  us  every  Sunday  even- 
ing, as  faithful  and  as  constantly  as  the  sun  rises  and  sets.  Good 
and  charming  as  he  is,  it  is  not  my  son,  my  only  son,  whom  I  love 
and  esteem  so  much.  It  is  not  George,  whom  I  have  so  often  seen 
sitting  by  us,  and  amusing  us  with  his  own  composition,  or  by  some 
well-written  piece  of  another,  or  giving  us  some  outlines  of  his  plans 
and  his  studies,  which  he  meant  to  pursue  in  some  future  time.  These 
are  scenes  now  past  and  gone,  and  when  they  will  return  again  to 
cheer  the  hearts  of  your  aged  parents,  God  only  knows.  You  are  in 
his  hands 

By  this  time,  I  suppose,  you  want  to  know  all  about  our  affairs  at 
home,  and  what  we  have  been  doing  since  you  left  us.  "We  remain 
here  in  the  old  house,  myself  in  the  great  chair  reading,  or  at  my 
table  writing  or  settling  my  accounts,  while  your  mother  sits  by  me 
knitting,  seT\ing,  or  talking,  as  she  pleases  ;  but  we  are  often  talking 
about  you,  looking  at  your  likeness,  and  telling  a  thousand  things  you 
would  say  and  do,  if  you  were  only  AA-ith  us,  and  sitting  l)y  us  as  you 
used  to  do.  But  this  is  what  we  can't  have.  Everything  now  is  in 
imagination,  although  sometimes  it  seems  almost  to  be  a  reality  ;  and, 
when  it  is  so,  the  happiness  is  inexpressible,  and  I  almost  start  from 


602  APPENDIX  A. 


mj  seat,  and  -when  I  come  to  myself,  I  say,  Omne  est  rectum.  Gaudeo 
te  esse  ijrcesentkm  mecum  in  imaginatione 

January  9,  1816.  —  In  your  absence,  I  dare  say,  you  will  never 
interest  yourself  in  the  politics  of  any  nation.  Every  nation  has  her 
own  peculiarities,  and  her  party  feelings  and  politics,  and  is  as  tena- 
cious of  her  own  opinions  as  we  are,  or  have  been,  in  this  country. 
As  every  indi\ddual  in  a  nation  is  as  tenacious  of  his  own  opinion  as 
the  nation  herself,  so  you  will  be  willing  he  should  enjoy  it  without 
any  opposition.  I  know  you  are  not  violent  in  any  of  your  opinions, 
and  that  is  one  of  the  best  traits  in  your  character,  and  it  will  always, 
should  you  live,  give  you  comfort  and  consolation  in  old  age. 

October  22.  —  Your  No.  46  tells  us  that,  although  you  have  given 
us  accounts  of  duels  and  disturbances  among  the  students,  yet  you 
have  no  interest  in  any  of  their  concerns,  but  associate  with  few, 
and  those  are  professors  of  the  University,  who  can  be  of  use  to  you 
in  all  your  pursuits.  This  course  I  approve,  and  it  must  be  of  great 
advantage  to  you.     I  never  supposed  you  would  associate  or  become 

acquainted  with  any  of  the  students Your  No.  49,  of  July  6, 

tells  us  also  that  you  are  a  little  sad.  I  am  very  sorry  for  it.  You 
are  too  far  from  home  to  be  sad.  Brighten  up,  my  son,  we  will  do  all 
for  you  we  can.  We  can't  be  on  the  spot,  you  know.  You  must  act 
the  father,  the  mother,  and  son.  We  could  do  no  more  were  we  with 
you.  Do  the  best  for  yourself  you  can,  and  we  shall  be  satisfied. 
Your  studies  go  on  well,  you  say.  That  is  great.  This  ought  to 
rouse  you  from  your  sadness,  and  I  am  sure  it  v/ill.  You  are  study- 
ing systematically,  you  say,  the  moral  and  political  state  of  Germany 
under  Professor  Saalfeld.  I  hope  all  your  studies  will  be  pursued 
systematically,  so  that  you  can  call  them  into  use  whenever  necessity 
requires.  This,  I  think,  has  so  long  been  your  practice  that  it  has 
now  become  habitual 

November  4.  —  ....  I  am  very  glad  to  learn  that  you  have  been 
so  fortunate  as  to  have  found  such  old  and  pleasant  friends  and 
companionable  gentlemen  as  Professor  Blumenbach  and  Judge  Zach- 
aria.  You  may  remember,  my  son,  that  when  you  can  please,  and 
satisfy,  and  command  their  attention  and  esteem,  and  give  them  a  fair 
opportunity  to  communicate  to  you,  they  will  be  infinitely  more  useful 
to  you  than  young  men  of  great  learning,  who  lack  in  wisdom  and 
experience.  Therefore,  if  you  mean  to  receive  any  benefit  from  the 
aged,  give  them  an  opportunity  to  tell  their  o-\\ti  story  in  their  o^^^l 
way,  and  you  will  be  improved,  and  they  will  be  pleased.  But  they 
should  never  be  contradicted,  nor  be  told  "  I  have  often  thought  so 


APPENDIX  A.  50 


Q 


myself."  Aud  what  gives  me  great  comfort  is,  that  I  have  always 
found  this  spirit,  to  the  full,  in  your  kind  and  benevolent  heart,  and 
always  ready  to  give  credit  for  it  in  others 

November  9.  —  ....  You  wrote  me,  in  your  No.  45,  of  June 
the  5th,  that  you  recite  German  to  Dr.  Schultze,  and  read  aloud  to 
him,  in  some  book,  as  I  desired,  which  requires  some  considerable 
exertion  of  the  voice.  This  I  like.  I  am  pleased  to  learn  it  from 
you.  I  wish  you,  however,  my  son,  in  this  part  of  your  improve- 
ment, to  understand  me  distinctly.  It  is  not  of  so  much  importance 
for  you  to  read  aloud  to  a  German,  as  it  is  that  a  German  should  read 
aloud  to  you.  Select  one  of  the  finest  oratorical  readere  in  Gottingen, 
whose  voice  is  round,  and  full,  and  melodious.  Place  yourself  twenty 
feet  from  him,  if  possible.  Eequest  him  to  select  and  read  aloud 
to  you  a  pathetic  oratorical  piece  in  German.  Such  a  piece,  if  possi- 
ble, as  will  command  all  the  powers  of  speech  and  eloquence 

Twenty  pieces  thus  read  to  you  by  him,  and  in  turn  by  you  to  him, 
in  his  tone  of  voice,  would  do  you  ten,  twenty,  yes,  thirty  times  as 
much  good  as  it  would  for  you  to  read  to  him  first,  and  in  the  com- 
mon way,  at  common  distance,  and  in  common  language.  It  is  the 
tone  of  the  voice,  and  the  attitude  of  a  polished  German  scholar, 
which  you  need,  to  be  able  to  read  and  speak  German  well,  like  a 
German  gentleman  and  scholar.  Do  the  same  in  Paris,  in  Eome,  in 
London,  and  what  you  will  hear  and  see  otherwise,  at  the  bar,  and 
from  the  pulpit,  and  in  common  conversation,  without  any  particular 
exertion  of  your  own,  will  be  sufficient  to  answer  all  your  purposes, 
and  all  my  expectations,  which  are  but  few,  although  you  may  think 
they  are  many 

You  may  imagine,  by  my  writing  to  you  so  much  and  so  frequently 
on  the  improvement  of  time,  and  on  the  economy  of  your  expenses, 
that  I  am  not  only  very  much  concerned,  but  that  I  am  very  solici- 
tous about  you.  If  you  have  any  such  idea  as  this,  you  are  greatly 
mistaken.  I  have  no  fear,  except  for  your  health  and  happiness.  If 
you  suppose  Professor  Stuart  and  I  expect  too  much  from  you  and 
Everett,  you  and  he  should  not  write  such  flattering  accounts  to  Dr. 
Kirkland  and  Savage,  of  the  advantages  which  Gottingen  possesses 
over  Cambridge  and  other  universities  in  this  country.  So  long  as 
you  and  he  draw  such  strong  comparisons,  and  tell  us  that  the  Uni- 
versity of  Gottingen  possesses  ten  times  the  advantages,  and  that  a 
student  can  progress  ten  times  as  fast  under  her  auspices  as  one  can 
imder  those  of  our  imiversities,  what  must  be  the  fair  expectations 
of  those  to  whom  you  two  young  gentlemen  WTite  1    That  you  ought 


504  APPENDIX  A. 


to  write  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth,  just  as  it  strikes  your  mind,  I 
don't  doubt.  Whether  it  ought  to  be  communicated  by  private  letters 
to  your  friends,  or  by  your  journal,  I  do  not  know.  Your  friends,  I 
know,  will  expect  everything  in  letters,  therefore  I  would  wTite  but 
few  letters,  and  those  I  would  write  in  my  best  stjde,  and  write  my 
sober,  honest  opinion,  without  any  exaggeration 

February  8,  1817.  —  I  read  carefully  your  letter  to  me  of  the  9th 
of  November  last,  No.  59,  as  well  as  both  of  yours  to  Dr.  Kirkland, 
and  made  up  my  mind,  as  I  had  done  long  before,  and  as  you  have 
learnt  by  my  letters  before  now,  that  a  seat  at  the  University  is  much 
more  congenial  to  your  taste,  genius,  and  habits,  in  my  opinion,  than 
to  be  employed  on  the  boisterous  and  vexatious  ocean  of  law  and 
politics.  After  reading  your  letter,  and  examining  the  subject  with 
care,  and  fearing,  by  the  contents  of  your  letter,  that  I  had  misstated 
to  you  the  conversation  which  took  place  between  me  and  Dr.  Kirk- 
land, at  two  several  times,  I  called  on  him  and  handed  him  your 
letter  in  the  affirmative,  which  he  read,  and  was,  to  appearances,  much 
pleased,  as  I  really  thought  he  was.  I  soon  found  that  my  statement 
to  you  was  correct 

....  To  see  Athens,  my  son,  is  not  worth  exposing  your  life,  nor 
the  time  nor  the  money  you  must  spend  to  see  it.  Whatever  time 
you  spend,  let  it  be  for  useful  purposes,  —  let  them  be  like  seed  sown 
in  a  rich  soil,  from  which  we  may  expect  some  thirty,  some  sixt}', 
and  some  an  hundred  fold.  While  I  think  of  it,  I  will  here  state, 
that,  however  corrupt  may  be  the  character  of  Lord  Byron,  and  how- 
ever much  you  ought  to  despise  both,  yet  he  is  entitled,  as  a  stranger, 
to  your' thanks  and  gratitude  for  his  kindness  and  attention  to  you 
while  in  London,  and  for  the  facilities  with  which  he  furnished  you 
for  Greece.  Yet  I  hope,  should  you  hereafter  meet  him  anywhere  on 
the  Continent,  that  you  will  seek  no  further  acquaintance  with  him. 
It  will  be  of  no  credit  to  you  in  this  country. 

March  22.  —  Since  I  returned  from  Hanover,  my  dearest  and  best 
of  sons,  I  have  not  been  very  deficient  or  neglectful,  as  the  multi- 
plicity of  my  letters  show  the  fact.  To  sit  down  quietly  by  myself, 
and  write  to  my  son,  is  one  of  the  greatest  pleasures  I  enjoy  ;  except 
when  I  learn  he  is  well,  prosperous,  and  studious,  judicious  and  happy, 
and  reljdng  on  God,  with  an  honest,  thankful  heart  for  all  the  ben- 
efits he  enjoys,  and  for  all  the  improvements  he  has  made.  'WTien  I 
hear  you  are  well,  and  healthy,  and  contented,  and  pleased,  you  know 
not  the  joys  of  your  father's,  your  mother's  heart.  These  joys  you 
never  will  know,  you  never  can  know,  till  you  become  a  father 


APPENDIX  A.  505 


yourself.  Perhaps,  under  your  present  circumstances,  you  may  im- 
agine, you  may  persuade  yourself,  that  no  parents  can  feel  more  for 
their  children  than  you  feel  for  your  parents,  and  your  near  friends 
and  relations.  I  hope,  my  son,  you  "will  never  have  such  sensations, 
such  pangs  for  us  as  we  have  felt,  and  still  feel,  for  you,  exposed  as 
you  are  to  temptations,  to  sickness,  and  loss  of  hfe.  We  pray  God  to 
preserve  your  life,  and  return  you  to  the  arms  and  affections  of  your 
parents  and  friends 

April  24.  —  ....  [As  to  the  time  of  his  return.]  I  have  always 
meant,  whenever  I  wrote  you,  to  leave  it  altogether  with  you  ;  hut 
to  extend  it  beyond  four  years  from  the  time  you  left  I  did  not 
feel  willing.  But  I  have  consented,  in  several  letters,  to  your  remain- 
ing abroad  long  enough  to  qualify  yourself  for  the  two  professorships, 
and  to  remain  till  you  were  satisfied  that  you  had  done  your  duty. 
We  have  consented  to  this  deprivation  altogether  for  your  good,  for 
your  happiness,  my  son,  and  for  that  of  the  public,  while,  at  the 
same  time,  no  one  so  much  desires  to  see,  and  embrace,  and  enjoy  the 
society  of  their  son  as  we  do  ;  but  we  feel  we  are  called,  at  this  time, 
to  make  sacrifices  which  we  before  had  never  thought  of.  Now,  you 
see,  my  son,  I  am  explicit  enough  to  be  perfectly  understood,  and  that 
you  do,  as  to  the  time,  as  you  think  best.  Make  yourself  happy 
and  comfortable.  Shun  everything  that  does  not  lead  to  improve- 
ment ;  keep  yourself  from  temptation  ;  be  just  and  honest  ;  love 
your  father  and  mother,  as  you  always  have  done  ;  remember  your 
friends,  they  certainly  don't  forget  you. 

January  17,  1819.  —  I  wrote  you  on  the  first  inst.  by  way  of  New 
York,  my  dearest,  my  best  of  sons,  to  give  you  the  distressing  intelli- 
gence of  the  death  of  your  beloved  mother  ;  and  no  mother,  I  trust, 
was  ever  loved  better  by  a  son  than  she  was  by  you,  and  no  mother, 
I  believe,  ever  loved  a  son  better  than  she  loved  you.     But  she  is 

gone,  I  trust,  to  a  better  world I  am  now  ver)''  anxious  and 

very  uneasy  to  hear  from  you,  and  I  grow  more  and  more  so  as  the 
time  of  your  absence  draws  nigher  and  nigher  the  close.  Notwith- 
standing my  feelings,  I  can't  consent  to  your  placing  'yourself  upon 
the  high  seas  for  home  till  the  best  season  for  crossing  the  Atlantic 
arrives.  Then,  I  pray  you,  my  son,  put  yourself  on  board  a  sound 
ship,  with  a  trusty  and  an  intelligent  captain,  and  come  home  in  God's 

own  time Your   sainted,   your  now   glorified  mother  often 

spoke  of  the  season  of  your  return  in  the  spring  ;  and,  especially  in 
the  latter  part  of  her  sickness,  —  when  her  strength  was  so  gone  as 
to  her  it  appeared  impossible  she  could  ever  recover,  —  she  begged  I 

VOL.    IT.  22 


506  APPENDIX  A. 


would  write  to  you,  and  tell  you  not  unreasonably  to  mourn  for  the 
loss  of  your  mother,  but  to  do  your  great  work  in  your  absence  faith- 
fully in  the  fear  of  God,  that  you  may  return  honorably  to  your 
friends  and  to  your  profession,  in  which  she  trusted  and  hoped  and 
believed  you  would  be  useful  to  yourself  and  friends,  and  serve  God 
in  your  day  and  generation  ;  and  hoped  you  would  remember  it 
would  be  but  a  short  time  before  you  must  go  to  her,  —  she  could 
never  return  to  you  again.  "  Tell  him,  also,  not  to  come  out  in  the 
cold,  distressing  season,  but  to  wait  a  little  longer,  and  come  in  the 
pleasant  season.  Ah,  I  know  my  son.  Why  do  I  say  this  ?  I  know 
I  have  long  experienced  his  prudence  and  good  judgment  in  all  his 
affairs  and  all  his  arrangements."  She  charged  Savage  to  beg  you  not 
to  regret  your  last  year's  absence,  but  remember  it  is  all  right ;  we 
ought  not  to  complain,  —  it  is  God  who  has  done  it,  and  all  we  have 
to  do  is  to  submit  to  his  will  and  pleasure. 

She  made  all  her  arrangements  in  relation  to  her  funeral,  and  made 
several  little  presents  to  those  she  loved 

My  son,  I  am  satisfied,  as  yet,  with  everything  you  have  done,  and  I 
believe  your  friends  who  are  worth  satisfying  are  as  much  so  as  I  am. 
If  you  come  home,  my  son,  with  the  same  moral,  pious,  and  well-ground- 
ed principles  as,  I  trust,  you  had  when  you  left  me,  you  will  be  to  me 
that  comfort  which  I  can  never  express  to  you  without  tears  in  my 
eyes,  nor  without  such  feelings  as  vnll  be  impossible  for  me  to  ex- 
press  Farewell,  my  son.     God  bless  you,  wherever  you  are, 

and  return  you  in  safety,  in  God's  own  time,  to  the  arms  and  affec- 
tions of  your  father  and  friends. 

Elisha'  Tickxor. 


APPENDIX  C.  507 


APPENDIX  B. 

EEVIEWS  AND  MINOE,  WRITINGS. 

1812.  On  Moore's  Aiiacreon.   ■ 

"  On  Milton's  Paradise  Lost. ' 

"  On  Sermons  by  the  late  Eev.  S.  C.  Thatcher.  ~ 

1816.  On  Michael  Stiefl. 

1824.  On  Griscom's  Tour  in  Europe. 

"       On  Scenes  in  Italy,  by  an  American. 
"       On  Free  Schools  of  New  England.    '• 

"       Outlines  of  the  Life  of  General  Lafayette.     North  American 
Review.     Reprinted,  London,  1825.    / 

1825.  On  Amusements  in  Spain.        "/'^'*'^il,- ^..^ /•.^,  r   tx-^. 
"       Remarks  on  Changes,  etc.,  in  Harvard  College. 

1821^.  Memoir  of  N.  A.  Haven.  -" 

1827.  On  Works  of  Chateaubriand. 

1831.  On  Works  of  Daniel  Webster. 

1832.  Lecture  on  The  Best  Mode  of  Teaching  the  Living  Languages. 
1849.  On  Memoirs  of  Rev.  J.  S.  Buckminster. 


L"    f  ^'".      -.'      --  -    '      ?M.^ 


APPENDIX  C. 

LITERARY  HONORS. 

1816.  Mineralogical  Society  of  Jena. 

1818.  Royal  Academy  of  History,  Madrid. 

1821.  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  Boston. 

"  American  Academy  of  Languages  and  BeUes-Lettres,  Boston. 

1825.  Columbian  Institute,  Washington,  D.  C. 

1828.  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelj)hia. 

1832.  Royal  Patriotic  Society,  Havana. 

1833.  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Boston. 
1845.  American  Ethnological  Society,  New  York. 


508  APPENDIX  D. 


1850.     Doctor  of  Laws,  Harvard  College,  Massachusetts. 
"       Doctor  of  Laws,  Brown  University,  Rhode  Island. 
".        Society  of  Antiquaries,  of  London. 
"       Maryland  Historical  Society,  Baltimore. 

1857.  Institute  of  Science,  Letters,  and  Arts,  of  Lombardy. 

1858.  Doctor  of  Laws,  Dartmouth  College,  New  Hampshire. 
"        Historical  Society  of  Tennessee,  Nashville. 

1864.     Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  Philadelphia. 
1866.     Numismatic  and  Antiquarian  Society,  Philadelphia. 

Doctor  Literarum  Humaniorum,  Regents  of  the  University  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  Albany. 


u 


APPENDIX  D. 


BEQUEST  BY  MR.  TICKXOR,  TO  THE  BOSTON  PUBLIC  LI- 
BRARY,  OF  HIS  COLLECTION  OF  SPANISH  AND  PORTU- 
GUESE  BOOKS. 

When  Mr.  Ticknor's  will  was  proved,  the  following  article  in  it  was 
made  known  :  — 

Ninth.  On  the  death  of  my  "wdfe  I  give  to  the  city  of  Boston, 
where  I  Avas  born,  where  I  have  lived  a  long  and  hapj)y  life,  and 
where  I  hope  to  die,  all  my  books  and  manuscripts  in  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  languages  ;  and  I  further  give  and  bequeath  to  the 
same  city  of  Boston,  the  sum  of  four  thousand  dollars,  to  be  paid 
within  one  year  after  the  probate  of  this  my  will,  the  same  to  be 
always  kept  by  the  said  city  safely  invested  at  interest,  for  the  pur- 
poses hereinafter  specified.  But  I  make  these  two  bequests  to  the  city 
of  Boston  only  in  trust  for  the  following  purposes,  and  no  other,  to 
wit :  — 

(1.)  That  in  the  course  of  each  and  every  five  years  during  the 
twenty-five  years  next  succeeding  the  receipt  by  the  said  city  of  the 
said  sum  of  four  thousand  dollars,  the  said  city  shall  expend  not  less 
than  one  thousand  dollars  in  the  purchase  of  books  in  the  Spanish 
and  Portuguese  languages  and  literatures,  or  in  one  of  them,  and  fur- 
thermore expressing  it  as  my  wish,  but  not  as  my  requirement,  in 


APPENDIX  D.  509 


order,  so  far  as  may  be,  to  insure  the  purchase  of  books  already  de- 
termined to  be  worth  possessing,  that  no  books  shall  be  so  purchased 
during  said  twenty-five  years,  nor  afterwards,  from  the  income  of  the 
said  fund  of  four  thousand  dollars,  which  shall  not  have  been  pub- 
lished in  some  one  edition  at  least  five  years,  —  it  being  my  will  that 
every  book  purchased  at  any  time  from  the  income  of  my  said  lund 
of  four  thousand  dollars  shall  be  a  book  of  permanent  value  and 
authority,  and  neither  newspapers,  periodicals,  nor  other  j)opular  pub- 
lications not  likely  to  be  of  lasting  consideration. 

(2.)  That  no  person  whatever  shall,  at  any  time,  or  under  any  cir- 
cumstances, except  for  binding  or  needful  repairs  in  binding,  be  per- 
mitted to  remove  from  the  proper  rooms  of  the  Public  Library  any  of 
the  books  hereby  bequeathed  or  for  the  purchase  of  which  provision  is 
hereby  made,  but  that  within  such  rooms,  and  at  all  such  times  and 
hours,  and  under  such  restrictions  as  the  Trustees  or  other  lawful  man- 
agers of  the  said  Library  may  deem  expedient  or  reasonable,  each  and 
all  of  said  books  so  bequeathed,  or  so  purchased,  shall  be  freely  acces- 
sible for  reference  or  study  to  all  such  persons  as  may  be  permitted  to 
resort  to  said  Library  or  to  use  it. 

(3.)  That  at  the  end  of  the  twenty-five  years  aforesaid,  and  in  each 
and  every  year  thereafter  forever,  the  said  city  of  Boston  shall  cause 
the  income  of  the  said  fund  of  four  thousand  dollars,  but  no  part  of 
the  principal,  to  be  expended  in  the  purchase  of  books  of  permanent 
value,  either  in  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese  languages,  or  in  such  other 
languages  as  may  be  deemed  expedient  by  the  Trustees  of  the  said  Li- 
brary, or  other  persons  having  lawful  charge  of  the  same,  but  always 
under  the  conditions  and  restrictions  hereinbefore  expressed,  namely, 
that  the  same  shall  be  used  only  in  the  proper  rooms  of  the  said 
Library,  and  never  lent  abroad  or  out  of  them. 

(4.)  That  none  of  the  books  bequeathed  by  me  as  aforesaid,  or  to 
be  purchased  from  the  income  of  the  fund  of  four  thousand  dollars  as 
aforesaid,  shall  at  any  time  be  sold,  exchanged,  or  given  away  ;  but 
that  they  shall,  if  not  inconvenient,  be  kept  together,'like  the  Bow- 
ditch  and  the  Parker  collections  now  in  the  said  Library. 

(5.)  That  if  at  any  time  the  fund  aforesaid  shall,  IViim  any  cause 
whatever,  become  diminished,  then  at  least  one  half  of  the  annual  in- 
come thereof  shall  yearly  be  added  to  the  principal  until  the  full  sum 
of  four  thousand  dollars  shall  be  made  good  again. 

(6.)  But  m  case  the  city  of  Boston  shall  refuse  or  neglect,  for  the 
space  of  one  year  after  the  probate  of  this  my  will,  to  accept  the  said 
bequests  of   books,  manuscripts,  and  money,  on  the  trusts  and  con- 


510  APPENDIX  D. 


ditions  hereinbefore  set  forth,  or  shall  at  any  time,  after  accepting  the 
same,  fail  or  neglect  faithfully  to  fulfil  each  and  all  of  said  trusts  and 
conditions,  according  to  their  true  spirit  and  intent,  then,  and  m  either 
of  said  cases,  I  give  and  bequeath  the  said  books,  manuscripts,  and 
money  to  the  President  and  Fellows  of  Harvard  College,  in  the  city 
of  Cambridge,  for  the  use  of  the  General  Library  of  said  College,  upon 
the  same  trusts  and  conditions,  so  far  as  the  same  can  be  applicable 
to  the  said  General  Library,  gi\Tiig,  as  I  do  hereby  give,  to  the  said 
President  and  Fellows,  full  power  to  sue  for  and  recover  the  said 
books,  manuscripts,  and  money,  or  any  of  them,  from  the  said  city  of 
Boston,  or  from  any  person  or  persons  who  may  have  the  same,  or 
any  of  them,  in  his  or  their  possession. 

About  two  months  after  Mr.  Ticknor's  death,  Mr.  W.  S.  Dexter,  on 
behalf  of  the  Executors,  informed  the  City  Council  of  the  city  of  Bos- 
ton, through  the  Mayor,  that  Mrs.  Ticknor  had  offered  to  relinquish 
her  right  to  retain  the  books  thus  bequeathed  to  the  city ;  and  the 
City  Council  accepted  the  bequest,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  and 
conditions  of  the  will.  Resolutions  were  passed  in  relation  to  this  sub- 
ject by  the  City  Council,  April  4,  1871,  and  by  the  Trustees  of  the 
Library,  April  26 ;  and  the  books  were  removed  to  the  Library  build- 
ing at  once. 


INDEX  TO  VOLS.  I.  AND  II. 


Abbotsford,  I.  282-284,  H.  160, 175. 

Abbott,  Jacob,  I.  405. 

Abercronibie,  Mr.,  II.  91. 

Aberdeen,  Earl  of,  II.  364,  365,  368,  372. 

Ackenbladt,  J.  D.,  I.  179. 

Acland,  Dr.,II.  432. 

Acton,  Sir  John  (Lord),  II.  373  and  note, 

374,  396,  397. 
Adair,  Right  Hon.  Sir  Robert,  I.  269. 
Adams,  Hon.  Charles  I'raucis,  II.  493. 
Adams,  John,  President  U.  S.,  I.  12,  13,  30, 

330,  339,  II.  408  ;  death  of,  I.  377 ;  eulogy 

on,  by  Webster,  378. 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  President  U.  S.,  1. 12, 

49,54,339,349,409,459. 
Adams,  Mrs.  John,  I.  13. 
Adams,  Mrs.  John  Quincy,  I.  349. 
Adderley,  Right  Hon.  Charles,  II.  358,  363, 

419. 
Addington,  Mr.,  I.  350,  411. 
Adelaide,  Madame,  II.  121. 
Agassiz,  Louis,  I.  421  and  note,  II.  231  and 

note,  310,  412,  414,  422,  423,  432,  438,  445 

and  note,  471,  482  ;  letter  to,  472. 
Aiken,  Charles,  I.  416. 
Alba,  Count  d',  I.  248.  249. 
Albani,  Cardinal,  I.  181. 
Albany,  Countess  of,  I.  183, 184,  XL  57. 
Albemarle,  Earl  of,  II.  149  150. 
Alberi,  Professor  Eugenio,  II.  315. 
Albert,  Prince  Consort,  II.  429. 
Alberti,  Count,  Tasso  MSS.,  IL  52,  53,  78, 

79  and  note. 
Aldobrandini,   Princess,   I.  256   and   note. 

See  Borghese,  Princess. 
Alertz,  Dr.,  II.  85. 
Alfleri,  Marquis,  II  42. 
Alfieri,  Yittorio,  I.  184,  II.  57;    anecdote 

of,  153. 
Alhambra,  I.  230,  231,  232  and  note. 
Alison,  Dr.,  I.  427,  IL  164,  175. 
Alison,  Miss,  II.  164. 
Alison,  Mrs.,  L  426-427,  II.  164, 175. 
Alison,  Rev.  Dr. ,  I.  280,  414. 
Allen,  Miss,  II.  77. 


Allen,  John,    I.  265,    408,    II.   149,  150, 

176. 
Allston,  Washington,  I.  316  and  note,  388, 

n.  76,  196,  269. 
Almack-s,  I.  296,  412,  413. 
Alps,  Austrian  and  Bavarian,  II.  27-34; 

Swiss,  34  ;  Tyrolese,  etc. ,  99. 
Althorp,  visits,  II.  170  - 173. 
Alvin,M.,II.  312. 
Ambei-ley,   Viscount  and  Viscountess,   11. 

482. 
American  Institute,  G.  T.  lectures  before, 

I.  393. 
Amiens,  Bishop  of,  I.  254. 
Amory,  William,  II.  445  note. 
Ampere,  J.  J.,  II.  243  and  note,  346,  347- 
Amsterdam,  visits,  I.  69. 
Ancillon,  J.  P.  F.,  L  496,  497,  499,  500- 

503. 
Ancona,  visits,  I.  167. 
Anderson,  Dr.,  I.  274,  275,  280. 
Anderson,  General  Robert,  II.  444. 
Anglona,  Duchess  of,  I'^.  126. 
Angloua,  Prince  of,  I.  207. 
Auhalt-Dessau,    Duchess    of,    I.    479    and 

note. 
Anthology  Club,  G.  T.  member  of,  I.  9. 
Antonelli,  Cardinal,  II.  348. 
Appleyard,  Mr.,  II.  170. 
Arago,  F.  D.,  IL  136. 
Ai-anjuez,  I.  195,  220  -  222. 
Arconati,  Madame,  I.  450,  451,  II.  95,  96, 

97,101,106,111,139.352. 
Arconati,  Mar<iuis,  I.  4q0,  451,  452,  II.  101, 

111,139,352. 
Argyll,  Duchess  of,  II.  3'j3.  367,  372. 
Argyll,  Duke  of,  II.  322,  323,  367,  372. 
Arnhoim,  Baroness  von  (Bi'ttiiia),  I.  500. 
Arrivabcne,  Count  Giovanni,  I.  450, 451, 11. 

139,  328  and  note. 
Ashburton,  Lord,  II.  364,  366. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  II.  247  note,  300. 
Astor,  W.  B.,L  26,178. 
Athen.Tum,  Boston,  I.  8, 12,  370,  371,  379 

and  note. 


512 


INDEX. 


Athenaeum  Club,  Loudon,  II.  145, 146,  378, 

a34,3yo. 

Atterson,  Miss,  I.  109. 

Auckland,  Lord  (First),  I.  264. 

Auersperg,  Count  (Anastasius  Griin),  II.  2, 

9,10. 
Austin,  Mrs.   Sarah,  I.  411,  413,  500,  II. 

3S4,  390. 
Azzeliui,  I.  176. 

Babbage,  Charles,  I.  407,  422,  IL  176, 178, 

181. 
Bachi,  Pietro,  I.  368  note. 
Baden,  Grand  Duke  of,  II.  330. 
Bagot,  Sir  Charles  and  Lady  Mary,  I.  295 

and  note. 
Bailiie,  Miss  Joanna,  I.  413,  414,  479,  n. 

153. 
Baiubridge,  Commodore,  I.  373. 
Baird,  Sir  David,  I.  412,  413. 
Balbo,  Count  Cesare,  I.  210,  212,  213,  308, 
307,  II.  38  -  42, 118, 127, 353 ;  letters  from, 
I.  307,  309. 
Balbo,  Countess,  I.  209. 
Balbo,  Count  Prosper©,  I.  209,  210,  308,  U. 

42. 
Baldissero,  Count  and  Countess,  11.  126. 
Balhorn,  Herr,  I.  85. 
Baltimore,  visits,  I.  41,  349,  351. 
Bancroft,  Hon.  George,  I.  385,  II.  258,  259 

note  ;  letter  from,  453. 
Bandmel,  Dr.,  II.  168, 169. 
Banks,  Sir  Joseph,  L  258  note,  263,  294,  II. 

478. 
Barante,  Baron  de,  I.  137, 138,  256,  n.  129, 

130, 134, 136. 
Barbieri,  II.  77. 
Barbour,  Philip,  I.  347. 
Barcelona,  visits,  I.  185, 191. 
Baring,  Bingham,  I.  411. 
Baring,  Thomas,  I.  411,  II.  324. 
Barker,  Dr.  Fordyce,  II.  463. 
Barnard,  Mr.,  I.  459. 
Barolo,  Marchesa,  II.  40,  41. 
Barolo,  Marchese,  II.  38,  40,  41,  42. 
Barrett,  Elizabeth,  II.  146  and  note. 
Barthelemy,  E.,  II.  131. 
Barthelemy-Saint-IIilaire,  Jules,  II.  119. 
Bartlett,  Sidney,  II.  93  note,  445  note. 
Bartolini,  Lorenzo,  II.  55. 
Barton  Library,  II.  488  and  note. 
Barton,  Mrs.  Thomas  P.,  II.  488  and  note. 
Bassano,  Due  de,  II  131. 
Bastard,  Count,  II.  125, 1.37, 138. 
Bates,  Joshua,  II.  149,  179,  284,  305  and 
note,  306,  309,  .310,  311  and  note,  312, 317, 
358,  365,  366,  372,  387. 
Baudissin,  Count,  I.  467,  468,  473  and  note, 

475,  476,  482,  491. 
Baudissin,  Countess,  I.  467. 


Bauer,  Mademoiselle,  I.  469,  478  and  note. 

Bavaria,   Crown  Prince  of  (Ludwig  I.),  L 
177. 

Beaufort,  Lady,  II.  3S5. 

Beaumont,  Elie  de,  II.  125. 

Beaumont,  Gustave  de,  I.  421. 

Beauvillers,M.,I.  122. 

Becchi,  II.  53. 

Becher,  Lady,  II.  371.     See  O'Xeil,  Miss. 

Beck,  Dr.,  Professor  at  Harvard  College,  I. 
351,  a52. 

Beck,  Dr.  Romeyn,  II.  281. 

Beck,  Professor,  I.  108. 

Beckford,  William,  I.  246  and  note. 

Bedford,  Sixth  Duke  of,  I.  268,  269,  270, 11. 
466. 

Belem,  Church  and  Convent,  I.  244. 

Belgiojoso,  Princess,  II.  124, 126, 127,  130. 

Belhaven,  Lord,  II.  368. 

Bell,  J.,  I.  248,  249. 

Bell,  John,  I.  173,  174, 180. 

Bell,  Joseph,  I.  7. 

Bell,  Professor,  II.  162. 

Bell,  Sir  Charles,  II.  163,  164;  Lady,  163, 

164,  3G0. 
BelUnghausen,  Baron,  II.  314. 
Bellocq,  L.,II.  48,  89,90. 
Benci,  I.  174. 

Benecke,  Professor,  I.  70,  76,  79,  82. 
Benedictine  Monasteries  in  Austria,  II.  22- 

30. 
Benvenuti,  II.  76. 
Berchet,  Giovanni,  I.  450,  II.  101. 
Berg.  President  von,  I.  122. 
Berlin,  visits,  I.  109,  493-503,  IL  313,  314, 

aSO,  331-333. 
Bernard,  General,  I.  350. 
Berustorff,  Count  and  Countess,  II.  373. 
Berryer,  P.  A.,  II.  1-30,  1.38. 
Bertrand,  Favre,  I.  1-53,  155. 
Bethune,  Mademoiselle  de,  II.  125. 
Bigelow,  Dr.  Jacob,  I.  12,  316  note,  319,  n. 

438,  493. 
Bigelow,  J.  P.,  11.305. 
Bigelow,  Timothy,  I.  13. 
Binney,  Horace,  II.  37,  46. 
Birkbeck,  Dr  ,  II  178. 
Blacas,  Duchess  de,  II.  348,  356. 
Blake,  George,  I.  20. 

Bland,  Robert,  verses  by,  II.  482  note,  483. 
Bligh,  President,  I.  372. 
Bliss,  Mrs., II.  263. 
Blumenbach,  Madame,  I.  103. 
Blumenbach,  Professor,  I.  70,  71,  80,  85,94, 

103, 104,  105, 121. 
Blumner,  Madame  de,  I.  481. 
Boccaccio's  house  at  Certaldo,  11.  91. 
Bodenhausen,  IT.  6. 
Bohl  von  Faber,  I.  2-36  and  note. 
Bologna,  visits,  1. 166,  II.  47. 


INDEX. 


513 


Bolognetti-Cenci,  Count  and  Countess,  II.  71. 

Bouibelles.  Count,  11  35,  49. 

Bom  belles,  Count  Henri,  1.  246,  247,  II  6, 
11,12 

Bouapjirte,  Caroline,  widow  of  Murat,  II.  60, 
127, 141 

Boiiiipuite,  Christine  (Countess  Poss(5),  I. 
182,  183  note,  446. 

Bonaparte,  Emperor  Napoleon  I.,  return 
from  Elba,  I.  49,  Dr.  I'arr  on,  50;  By- 
ron's feeling  for,  60;  anecdotes  of,  61, 
123. 

Bonaparte,  Jerome,  I.  83,84,  111,  II.  60,88. 

Bonaparte,  Letizia  (Madame  Merc),  I.  181. 

Bonaparte,  Louis,  I.  181,  II.  87. 

Bonaparte,  Louis  (Emperor  Napoleon  111.), 
II.  88  and  note. 

Bonaparte,  Lucien,  I.  181,  182,  IL  60. 

Bonaparte,  Madame  Lucien,  I.  182,  183,  II. 
60. 

Bonaparte,  Pauline.     See  Borghese. 

Bonaparte,  Princess  Charlotte,  II.  87,  88. 

Bonaparte,  Princess  Matilda,  II.  88  and  note. 

Bond,  Professor,  II.  310. 

Bonstetten,  Baron  de,  I.  153, 156, 157, 164, 
470  note. 

Borghese,  Don  Camillo,  II.  61,  66. 

Borghese,  Princess  Pauline  Bonaparte,  I. 
181,  II.  66. 

Borghe.«e,  Prince  Francesco,  II.  61,  62,  84, 
346  note. 

Borghese,  Princess,  II.  61,  64,  66,  67,  80,342 
and  note,  345. 

Borgieri,  I.  162. 

Bose,  Comtesse,  I.  467. 

Bose,  Count,  1  459. 

Bose,  Countess,  I.  459,  476. 

Bossange,  Hector,  11.  102. 

Bostock,  Dr.,  I.  416. 

Boston,  G.  T.  born  in,  I.  1;  condition  of, 
1800-1815,  17-21;  town-meetings,  20; 
comparison  with  Athens,  20;  in  1819, 
315,  316  and  note;  condition  in  1839,  II. 
188,  203. 

Boston  Provident  Institution  for  Savings, 
G.  T.  Trustee  of,  1.  379  note. 

Boston  Public  Library,  II.  284  and  note, 
299  -  320  :  G.  T.'s  peculiar  views  on.  300- 
303,  304,  300,  307,  316,  319,  320  ;  building 
for,  308 ;  G.  T.  goes  to  Europe  for,  311  - 
817;  gifts  of  books  to,  318  note,  319; 
President  of  Trustees,  320 ;  interest  in, 
333,  338,  351,  381,  382,  400,  409,  446,  487 
and  note. 

Boswell,  James,  I.  53,  55. 

Boswell,  junior,  I.  58. 

Botta,  C.  G.  G.,  I.  164. 

Bottiger,  K.  A.,  I.  456,  457. 

Boucheron,  II.  42. 

Bouverie,  Hon.  E.,  II.  148,  363. 
22* 


Bowditch,  Dr.  Nathaniel,  I.  316,  371,  391, 
405,11.  190,464. 

l$()wring.  Dr.  (."^ir  John),  IT.  65. 

Bradfoi-d,  Charles  Frederick,  letter  to,  II. 
467  and  note. 

Braudes,  C.  A.,  I.  178,  II.  325. 

Brandes,  Dr.  Karl,  II.  313,  314,  331. 

Bra.ssier,  M.,I.  501. 

Breme,  Marquis  de,  1. 101, 164. 

Breton,  General,  II.  376. 

Bridgeman,  Laura,  II.  194,  195. 

Bright,  II.  A.,  II.  400. 

Brignole,  Jlarquis,  II.  114. 

Brisbane,  Sir  Thomas,  1.  419,  422. 

British  Association  for  the  -\ilvanccment  of 
Science,  fifth  meeting  of,  I.  419  -  424. 

Brodie,  Professor,  II.  358. 

Broglia  di  Monbello,  Count,  IT.  91. 

Broglie,  Albert  Due  de,  II.  369. 

Broglic,  Duchesse  de,  I.  128,  131,  132,  1.33, 
137,  138,151,  152,  257,  314,  II.  103,  104, 
105,  106,  107,  116,  120,  126,  130,  1;«,  134, 
135, 137,  139  and  note,  355;  letter  from, I. 
311. 

Broglie.  Victor  Due  de,  1. 128,  139, 151, 155, 
253,  257  note,  263,  312,  314,  II.  103,  104, 
105,  107, 108,  110, 129, 130, 131, 133,  1S4, 
139,  143, 145,  354,  355, 356,  369. 

BrookUne,  I.  385,  II  457. 

Brooks,  Edward,  1. 154,  156, 158. 

Brooks,  Shirley,  II.  254  note,  256  note. 

Brosius,  Dr.,  I.  11. 

Brougham,  Henry  Lord,  T.  266,  279,  II.  150, 
151,  175,  176,  178,  193,  371. 

Brown,  Dr.,  I.  280  and  note. 

Bruen,  Rev.  M.,  I.  3r)4  note. 

Bruess,  Countess,  I   154. 

Brunet,  G.,  II.  255  and  note. 

Brunetti,  Count,  II.  38. 

Brussels,  visits,  I.  450,  II.  311,  313,  328. 

Buckland,  Dr.,  L  404-406,11.168, 169,176. 

Buckle,  W.  H.,  II.  255  and  note;  civiliza- 
tion in  Europe,  410. 

Buckminster,  Bliss  Eliza,  I.  331,  377  note. 

Butkniinster,  Mi.*s  Lucy,  I.  9  and  note,  10. 

Buckminster,  liev.  Joseph  S.,  I.  8,  9,  17; 
death  of,  10  ;  6.  T.  in  charge  of  his  pa- 
pers, 10  note. 

Bugeaud,  General,  II.  133, 134. 

BuUer,  Mrs.,  I.  411. 

BQlow,  Baron  Edouard  von,  I.  462,  474,  475, 
479,  483,  4S9. 

Bulwer,  Sir  Henry  (Lord  Balling),  11.263, 269. 

Bunbury,  Edward,  II.  360. 

Bunsen,  Cad  Josias,  1. 177, 178,  II.  58, 59. 62, 
66,67,70,76,79,84.85,287,312,315,328. 

Bunsen,  Mrs.,  II.  58,  02,  329. 

Bunsen,  Rev.  E.   II.  169. 

Buonarotti,  TI.  56. 

Burgess,  Sir  James  Bland,  I.  60,  62. 

GG 


514 


INDEX. 


Burlington,  Earl  of,  II.  3G3. 

Burr,  Aaron,  I.  261,  II.  35,  113, 114. 

Bussierre,  Baron  de,  I.  464,  470. 

Buttini,  Dr.,  I.  154. 

Byron,  Lady,  I.  60,  63,  66,  67,  68,  410  and 

note,  448. 
Byron,  Lord,  I.  54,  58,  59,  60,  62,  63,  64, 66, 

67,  68, 110, 114, 165,  166,  411,  446. 

Caballero,  Fernan,  pseud.,  I.  236  note. 

Cabot,  George,  I.  12,  13,  14,  396. 

Cadaval,  Duchess  de,  I.  249.  ^ 

CacUz,  1.193;  visits,  236. 

Caernarvon,  Earl  of,  II-  364,  371. 

Calasanzios  Convent,  1. 195. 

Calderon  de  la  Barca,  Don  A.,  II.  248,  263. 

Calhoun,  John  C,  I.  349,  381. 

Cambridge,  Duchess  of,  II.  381. 

Cambridge,  Duke  of,  II.  381. 

Cambridge,  England,  visits,  I.  270,  271,  II. 

155-159. 
Cambridge,  Princess  Mary  of,  11.  381. 
Cammuccini,  Cav.,  II.  76. 
Camoens,  I.  244,  252. 
Campagna  of  Rome,  I.  168. 
Campbell,  Rev.  John,  II.  281. 
Campbell,  Sir  John,  I.  245,  246. 
Campbell,  Thomas,  I.  62,  63,  65,  282,  410, 

II.  360. 
Camperdown,  Third  Earl  of,  II.  482. 
Camporesi,  prima  donna,  II.  76. 
Campuzano,  M.,  II.  126. 
Canning,  anecdote  of,  II.  150. 
Canova,  Antonio,  I.  172. 
Capponi,  Marchese  Gaetano,  II.  52,  53. 
Capponi,  Marchese  Gino,II.  56,  77,315,  339. 
Capuccini,  Monsiguor,  II.  85. 
Card  well,  Edward  (Lord),  II.  323,  384,  397, 

398,  399. 
Cardwell,  Mrs.  E,,  II.  384,  397. 
Card  well,  Mrs.,  II.  397. 
Carlisle,  Seventh  Earl  of,  II.  271,  425  ;  letter 

to,  450  ;  letter  from,  451.     See  Morpeth. 
Carlyle,  Dr.,IL  59.      c,^^ 
Carlyle,  Thomas,  II.  180.  ',  *  *^  4  . 
Carmignani,  II.  92,  93,  94. 
Carroll,  Archbishop,  I.  41. 
Carroll,  Charles,  I.  41. 
Carus,  Dr.,  I.  459,  473,  475,  482,  II.  480  and 

note. 
Cass,  General  Lewis,  11. 113, 141. 
Cassell,  visits,  I.  121. 
Castel-Branco,  Baron.     Sfe  Lacerda. 
Castiglione,  Madame  de,  II.  370,  372. 
Castro,  Don  Adolfo  de,  II.  259. 
Castro,  Don  Joao  de,  I.  246. 
Cavour,  Count  Camillo  di,  II.  352,  353,  431. 
Chadwick,  Edwin,  II.  147. 
Chalmers,  Rev.  Dr.,  I.  405. 
Chaloner,  Mr.,  I.  443. 


Channing,  Dr.  Walter,  1. 148, 391 ;  letters  to, 

94,  149. 
Channing,  Edward  T. ,  I.  9, 12, 26  ;  letters  to, 

30,  42,  83,  89,  96,  107,  118,  183. 
Channing,  Mrs.  Walter,  letters  to,  I.  148, 

188. 
Channing,  Rev.  William  E. ,  I.  17, 84, 96, 178, 

316,  327,  382,  391,  405,  479,  IL  101,150, 

188,  300  :  letter  to,  200. 
Chantrey,  Sir  Francis,  II.  178. 
Chapman,  Dr.,  I.  IG. 
Charlottesville,  visits,  I.  34,  348. 
Chasles,  Philarete,  II.  256  note. 
Chastellux,  Count  de,  1. 109. 
Chateaubriand,  Madame  de,  I.  355. 
Chateaubriand,  Vte.,  I.  137,138,  139,  140, 

146,254,255,  304,  XL  132. 
Chatterton,  Lady,  II.  371. 
Chauuey,  Commodore,  I.  373. 
Cheverus,  Bishop, I.  18  note. 
Cheves,  Langdon,  I,  350,  351. 
Chigi  family,  II.  61,  64. 
Chigi,  Prince,  II.  74. 
Chirk  Castle,  I.  52. 
Chorley,  11.  F.,  II.  149,  374. 
Chorley,  J.  II. ,  II.  374, 384,  385  ;  letter  from, 

452. 
Christina,  Queen  Dowager  of  Spain,  II.  .342. 
Cibrario,  Luigi,  II.  .353. 
Cicognara,  Count,  I.  163,  164,  166. 
Cintra,  I.  245  -  247  ;  convention  of,  246. 
Circourt,  Count  Adolphe  de,I.  470 and  note, 

475  note,  482,  483,  485,  486,  II.  114,115, 

117,  122, 123, 125.  126, 137,  138, 139,  143, 

190,  235,  256  note,  373,  355;  letters  to, 

204,  347,  355. 
Circourt,  Countess  Anastasie  Klustine  de,  I. 

470  and  note,  482,  483,  485,  486,  IL  137, 

139,  a55,  3-56. 
Civil  War  in  the  United  States,  H.  4-33-435, 

440-444,  445-449,  456,  460,461,  463. 
Clanricarde,  iMarquis  and  Marchioness,  II. 

374,  381. 
Clare,  Lord,  I.  422. 
Clarendon,  Countess  of,  11.  323 
Clarendon,  Fourth  Earl  of,  II.  323,  324,  325, 

327,  372,  373,  .382. 
Clarke,  Dr.,  II.  156. 
Clarke,  Miss  Mary,  II.  106,  124.     See  Mohl, 

Madame. 
Clarke,  Mrs.,  II.  156,  157- 
Clay,  Henry,  I.  350,  381,  II.  263,  264. 
Clemencin,  Diego,  1. 197. 
Clementine,  Pi-inoess  of  France,  II.  121. 
Clerk,  John,  I.  277,  2R0. 
Cloncurry,  Lord,  I.  422. 
Cog.<well,  Joseph  Green,  I.  116,  156,  173, 

273,  278  note,  282,  284,  285,  316  note,  318 

and  note,  332,  336,  ,385,  II.  79,  85.  100, 

245,  247  note,  289,  420  ;  letter  to,  488. 


INDEX. 


515 


Golden,  Colonel  David,  II.  207. 

Cole,  Viscount,  II.  17(3. 

Coleridge,  Henry  Nelson,  II.  144,  149,  153, 
181. 

Coleridge,  Mrs.  Henry  N.  (Sara  T.),  I  285, 
286,  11.  153. 

Coleridge,  Mrs.  S.  T.,  I.  285,  286,  II.  153. 

Coles,  Miss,  I.  29 

Coles,  Secretary,  I.  29. 

Colloredo,  Count,  I.  484,  II.  343,  344. 

Comuiou  School  Journal  of  Connecticut,  I. 
2  note. 

Conde,  Jo^^  Antonio,  I.  18",  197. 

Confalonieri,  Count,  II.  96. 

Confalonieri,  Count  Federigo,  I.  IGl  and 
note,  162,  164,  256,  45U,  II.  96,  103,  104, 
107,108,109-113. 

Consalvi,  Cardinal,  I.  180. 

Constant,  Benjamin,  I.  131,  134,  138,  143, 
145,  152. 

Constant,  Madame,  II.  355- 

Contrabandists,  journey  with,  from  Seville 
to  Lisbon,  I.  241,  243  note 

Cooke,  G.  F.,  I.  53  note,  127,  473. 

Coolidge,  T.  Jefifer.*on,  II.  492. 

Coppet,  visits,  II.  36. 

Copleston,  Mr.,  I.  405. 

Copyright,  International,  II.  278-280. 

Coquerel,  Athanase,  II.  131. 

Cordova,  visits,  I.  224-228;  cathedral- 
mosque  of,  224, 225  ;  hermits  of,  226,  227  ; 
society  in,  227,  228. 

Correa  de  Serra,  Abbe,  I.  16  and  note. 

Cossi,  Count,  II.  42. 

Cotton,  AV.  C.,II.  168,169. 

Cousin,  Victor,  II.  138. 

Cowper,  Countess,  I.  408,  409,  412,  II.  181. 

Cowper,  Earl,  I.  408. 

Cowper,  Hon.  H.  F.,  II.  482. 

Cowper,  Lady  Fanny,  II.  181. 

Crampton,  Richard,  II.  327  and  note. 

Crampton,  Sir  Philip,  I.  420. 

Cranbourne,  Lord,  I.  268. 

Cranston,  G.,  I.  277. 

Cranworth,  Lady,  II.  368, 397,  898, 399 ;  let- 
ter to,  474. 

Cranworth,  Lord-Chancellor,  II.  368,  400, 
474. 

Craufnrd,Mr.,I.  270. 

Cranfurd,  Sir  J.,  I.  270. 

Craven,  Mr.,  I.  175. 

Creighton,  Sir  Alexander.  I.  421,422. 

Creuzer,  G.  F.,  I.  125,  II.  100. 

Crillon,  Due  de,  I  255,  II.  128. 

Crosse,  Andrew,  TI.  182,  188. 

Cunmiing,  Sir  William,  I.  176. 

Curran,  John  Philpot,  I.  294. 

Curtis,  Augustus,  T  4. 

Curtis,  Benjamin,  first  husband  of  Mrs.  E. 
Ticknor,  graduate  of  Harvard  College,  I. 


3 ;  surgeon  in  Revolutionary  Army,  phy- 
sician in  Boston,  dies  young,  I.  4  and 
note;  father  of  Mrs  W.  II.  Woodward, 
Benjamin,  Harriet,  and  Augustus  Curtis, 
grandfather  of  B.  R.  and  G.  T.  Curtis, 
L4. 

Curtis,  Benjamin,  son  of  Dr.  B.  C.  and  Mrs. 
E.,  L  4. 

Curtis,  Benjamin  R. ,  I.  4,  II.  215  note,  310 ; 
Judge  of  the  U.  S.  Supreme  Court,  401, 
426  and  note,  445  note,  457  j  letter  to,  402 
and  note. 

Curtis,  C-  P.,  I.  316  note. 

Curtis,  Eliza,  wife  of  W.  II.  Woodward,  I.  4, 
7,  276. 

Curtis,  George  Ticknor,  1. 4, 317,  II  244, 254, 
287,  326,  488,  493  ;  letter  to  G.  S.  Ilillard, 

I.  326,  391.  II.  187,  402  note  ;    letters  to, 

II.  222,  225,  231,  277,  327,  457,  4-59,  461, 
469,  485. 

Curtis,  Harriet,  I.  4. 

Curtis,  Mrs.  T    B.,  II.  76  note. 

Curtis,  Rev.  Philip,  I.  3. 

Curtis,  T.  B.,  I  316  note. 

Cushman,  Miss  Charlotte,  II.  357  note. 

Custis,  Miss  Nellie  (Mrs.  Peter),  I.  38. 

Cuvier,  Baron,  I.  255. 

Czartoryski,  Prince,  II.  113. 

Daiil,  J.  C.  C.,I.  482,  490. 

Dalbiack,  Sir  Charles,  II.  179. 

Dallas,  G.  M.,  II.  872. 

Dallas,  Report,  I.  30. 

Dalton,  Mr.,  I.  422. 

Dana,  Richard  II.,  poet,  letter  to,  II.  74-76. 

Dante,  study  of,  I.  85,  86,  394,  466,470,472, 

475  and  note,  482,  II.  69,  201,  480  and 

note. 
D'Appony,  Count,  II  19,  111,  114. 
Dartmouth  College,  case  of,  vs.  Woodward, 

I.  4  ;  Elisha  Ticknor  graduate  of,  1. 1,  5  ; 
Dr.  Wheelock  President  of,  I.  5  ;  G.  T. 
member  and  graduate  of,  I.  6,  7. 

Dartmouth,  Earl  of,  II.  179. 

D'Aumale,  Due,  II.  371,  382. 

D'Aumale,  Duchesse,  IT.  376,  382. 

Daveis,  Charles  S  ,  I.  816  note  ;  letters  to,  24, 
43,  51, 87, 169. 232  note,  8.34,  8.36,  a37, 339, 
844,  378,  879,  .394,  896,  .39.7,  398,  3^*9,  401, 

II.  192,  195,  226,  229,  2.39,  281,  283,  289, 
426. 

Davis.  Hart,  I.  447. 

Davis,  Judge,  I.  329,  340,  a55. 

Davis,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  I.  P.,  L  328. 

Davis,  Mr.  Samuel,  I.  329. 

Davoust,  Madame,  I.  146,  147. 

Davoust,  Marechal,  I.  146, 147. 

Davy,  Dr.,  I.  271. 

Davy,  Lady,  I.  57, 128,  IL  179 

Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  I.  54, 57,  60, 128, 152. 


516 


INDEX. 


Day,  Professor,  I.  l-l. 

Deaf-mutes,  teaching  of,  in  Madrid,  I.  196. 

De  Bresson,  I.  501. 

De  Caudolle,  A.  P.,  I.  154,  155. 

Decazes,  Count  (Duke),  I.  253,  254,  256,  II. 

106,  119,  136. 
DEcks^tein,  Baron,  II.  125,  127. 
De  Crollis,  II.  69. 
De  Gerando,  Baron,  II.  130,  141. 
Dehn,  Professor,  II.  331. 
De  la  Rive,  Auguste,  II.  346,  347. 
De  la  Rive,  President,  I.  152,  153,  154,  156, 

II.  37. 
Delessert,  Baron,  II.  133, 137. 
Delessert,  Madame  Francois,  II.  137. 
De  Metz,  II.  137. 
Denison,  Mr.,  11.169. 
Denison,  Right  Hou.  Evelyn  (Lord  Ossing- 

ton),  I.  408  note,  II.  324,  378,  482. 
De  Pradt,  I.  257  and  note,  263. 
De  Saussure,  >Iadame,  I.  153. 
De  Saussure,   Madame  Necker,   I.  155  and 

note. 
Devonshire,  Duchess  of,  I.  177,  180,  255. 
Devrient,  Emil,  I.  483. 
Dewey,  Rev.  Orville,  II.  273. 
Dexter,  Mrs.  W.  S.,  II.  298  note,  321,  341, 

353,  354,  356,  358,  366,  309,  381,  455,  458, 

470,  478 ;  letters  to,  II.  327,  335. 
Dexter,  Samuel,  I.  9,  10  note,  20,39,  40,  41 

note. 
Dexter,  William  Sohier ,  II.  321 ,  322  and  note , 

3.58,  478  :  letter  to,  3-34. 
D'Haussonville,  Viscount,  II.  104, 120,  126. 
D'Haussonville,  Yiscountess,  II.   104,   120, 

126,  354,  .355,  356. 
Dickens,  Charles,  II.  207. 
Dickerson,  Governor,  I.  381. 
Dickin.«on,Dr.,  I.  412. 
Diederichstein,  Baroness,  I.  471. 
Dietrichstein,  Count,  II.  11, 12. 
Dino,  Due  de,  II.  91. 
D'Israeli,  I.,  I.  62. 
Disraeh,  Right  Hon.  B.,  11.  382,  461. 
Dissen,  Professor,  I.  70,  95,  115,  121. 
D'lvernois,  Sir  Francis,  I.  153, 155. 
Donaldson,  General,  II.  444. 
Don,  General  Sir  George,  I.  235  and  note. 
Don  Quixote,  I.  186,  223,  II.  476 ;  Clemen- 

cin"s  notes  to,  index  of,  467. 
Donkin,  Professor,  II.  394,  395. 
Dosne,  M.  and  Madame,  II.  130. 
Doudan,  X.,  II.  104, 126, 131, 143,  354. 
Douglas,  Lady,  I.  180. 
Downie,  Sir  .John,  I.  238,  240,  241. 
Downshire,  Dovrager-Marchioness  of,  I.  268, 

295,  296. 
Downshire,  Marquess  of,  T.  296. 
Dowse,  Thomas,  II.  417,  418. 
Doyle,  II.  375. 


Doyle,   Francis  Hastings  (Sir),  I.  447,  II. 

478. 
Doyle,  Miss,  I  447. 

Doyle,  Sir  Francis,  I.  442,  446,  447,  H.  149. 
Draveil  Chateau,  visits,  I.  146-148. 
Dresden,  visits,  1. 109,  456-489,  II.  329,330, 

333,  334  ;  picture-gallery,  I.  109,  468. 
Drew,  Mrs.,  I.  180. 
Droz,  M.,II.  1.30. 
Dublin   visits,  I.  419-425. 
Duchatel,  Count  C.  M.  T.,  II.  126, 129, 131, 

136. 
Dufferiu,  Lord,  II  372. 
Dumont,  M.,  I.  154,  430,  IL  87. 
Duncan,  Dr.,  II.  168. 
Dundas,Dr.,  I.  440,444. 
Dundas,  Sir  W.,  II.  79. 
Duras,  Due  de,  I.  253. 
Duras,  Duchess  de,  I.   253,  254,  255  and 

note,  256,  258-263.  304,  II.  125, 132,  355. 
Durham,  First  Earl  of,  II.  146. 
Duval,  Judge,  1.39. 
Duvergier  de  Hauranne,  II.  131, 136. 
Dwight,  Miss  Anna,  I  398. 
Dwight,  Miss  Catherine,  death  of,  I  456. 
Dwight,  Miss  EUen.     See  Twisleton,  Hon. 

Mrs.  E. 
Dyce,  Rev.  A.,  II.  181. 

Eastl.^ke,  Sir  Ch.^rles,  II.  383,  384. 

Ebrington,  Viscount  and  Viscountess,  I. 
269,11  371. 

Eckhardstein ,  Baron,  I.  177. 

Edge  worth.  Miss  Honora,  I.  427.  See  Beau- 
fort, Lady. 

Edgeworth,  Miss  Maria,  I  446,  458,  II,  118, 
119,  230;  opinion  of  G.  T.,  I.  392;  visit 
to,  426-432;  letters  from,  388,  H.  174 
note :  letters  to,  174,  18S,  193,  219. 

Edgeworth,  Mrs.  R.  L  ,  I.  426,427  and  note, 
428  ;  death  of,  432  note. 

Edgeworth,  Richard  Lovell,  I.  427,  428, 430, 
431. 

Edgeworthtown,  visits,  I.  426-432. 

Edheijertha,  story  of,  I  -331-333. 

Edinburgh,  visits,  I.  273-282;  society  in, 
276  ;  visits,  II.  161  - 164. 

Ehrenberg,  C.  G.,  II.  a32. 

Eichhorn,  Professor,  I.  70,  76,  79,  80,82,  84, 
95, 121. 

Einsiedel,  Count  and  Countess,  I.  485. 

Elgin,  Countess  of,  II.  126. 

Elgin,  Seventh  Earl  of,  I.  279. 

Eliot,  Miss  Anna,  I.  3.34  and  note,  335.  See 
Ticknor,  Mrs.  George. 

Eliot,  Miss  Catherine.  See  Norton,  Mrs. 
Andrews. 

Eliot,  Mrs.  Samuel,  letter  to,  I.  337. 

Eliot,  Samuel  Atkins,  IL  250,  260  note; 
letters  to,  I.  331,  340. 


INDEX. 


517 


Eliot,  Samuel,  founder  of  Greek  Professor- 
ship at  Harvard  College,  I.  335  aud  note. 

Eliot,  Samuel,  II.  420. 

Ellesmere,  Earl  and  Countess  of,  II.  322. 

Ellice,  Colonel,  I.  279. 

Ellice,  Edward,  II.  371. 

Ellice,  Mr. ,  II.  ISl. 

Ellice,  Young,  II.  149. 

Elliot,  Author  of  "Corn  Law  Rhymes,"  I. 
441. 

Elmsley,  Peter,  I.  53  and  note. 

Elphinstone,  Right  Hon.  Mount-Stuart,  II. 
68,  70,  72,  154. 

Elwin,  Rev.  W.,  11.  335,  337,  369. 

Emmet,  Thomas  Addi.^  I.  39,  40,  41  note. 

Empsou,  William,  II.  152,  154, 155. 

Eucke,  J.  F.,  II.  832. 

England,  vi.-^its,  I.  49-68,  251,  263-272, 
285-298, 404  -  449,  II.  144 - 159, 166  - 183, 
311,317,322-327,357-400. 

Eppes,  Mr.,I.  31. 

Ercolaui,  Prince,  II.  88. 

Ersch,  Professor,  I.  Ill,  112 

Erviug,  George  W.,  I.  186,  187, 188,  212. 

Escoiquiz,  Don  Juan,  I.  219. 

Escorial,  I.  195, 197,  214-216. 

Eskeles,  Baron,  II.  10. 

Essex  Street,  Boston,  G.  T.'s  first  home  in, 
1.  3  note,  4. 

Europe,  visits,  I.  49-299,402-511,11.1- 
183,321-400. 

Eustis,  Governor,  I.  20. 

Everett,  Alexander  Hill,  I.  11,  12,  316  and 
note,  345,  380,  459  note. 

Everett,  Edward,  I.  12,  49,  68,71,77,80, 
84,  121,  316  and  note,  II.  231,  258,259 
note,  288,  304  and  note,  305,  306, 308,  317, 
320,  425,  4.39,  448,  458,  466;  letters  to, 
268,  284,  300,  311,  313,  316,  324,  325,  418, 
424  ;  letters  from,  303,  309  ;  death  of,  469 
and  note,  470  aud  note. 

Everett,  Mrs  A.  H.,  I.  345. 

Everett,  William,  II.  309,  470. 

Eynard,  M.,  II.  116, 129, 133,  134. 

Eynard,  Madame,  II.  133. 

Fabre,  M.,II.  57. 

Falconieri,  Prince,  II.  52. 

Falcke,  Ilofrath,  I.  124. 

Falkenstein,  Dr.  Charles,  T.  465,  475,  482. 

Falmouth,  A'iscount,  I.  412. 

"Family,    The,"    Club    at   Cambridge,   I. 

271. 
Farrar,  Professor  John,  I.  332,  355. 
Fauriel,  Charles,  II.  102,  103, 106,  114, 124, 

127, 130. 
Fea,  C.,I.  179. 
Feder,  Professor,  I.  77. 
Felton,  C.  C,  II  256  note,  310,  445  note. 
I'  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,"  II.  142, 143, 147, 


149,  151,  161,  162,  179,  190.     Compared 

with  "  Conquest  of  Mexico,"  II.  209,  246. 
Ferdinand  VII.,  King  of  Spain,  I.  191,  206, 

212. 
Ferguson,  Dr.,  I.  417. 
Fesch,  Cardinal,  I.  181,  II.  64  and  note. 
Fiacchi,  Abbe,  II.  90  and  note. 
Filipowicz,  Madame,  I.  406. 
Fisher,  Joshua  Francis,  II.  459. 
Fitzgerald,  Lord,  I.  501. 
Fitzpatrick,  Lady,  II.  17G. 
Fitzwilliam,  Hon.  George,  II.  358. 
Fitzwiliiam,  Lady  Charlotte,  II.   178,  358, 

359,  392,  393. 
Fitzwilliam,  Third  Earl,  I.  436,  487,  439- 

445,  II.  144, 159,  178,  858,  362,  392,  393  ; 

letter  to,  187. 
Flahault,  Count  and  Countess,  I.  277,  II. 

380. 
Fletcher,  Miss,  I.  279,  433  and  note,  434,  IL 

168. 
Fletcher,  Mrs.,  I.  279  and  note,  433,  434,  n. 

106, 163. 
Florence,  visits,  I.  183,  II.  48-58,  87-91, 

315,388-340,350,351. 
Fliigel,  Dr.  Fehx,  II.  313. 
Follen,  Dr.  Charles,  Professor  at  Harvard 

College,  I.  351,  352,  368  note. 
Folsom,  Charles,  I.  339,  390. 
Forbes,  Captain,  I.  262. 
Forbes,  Hon.  Francis,  I.  458,  459,  461,463, 

477,  478,  486,  489,  II.  8, 19,  329. 
Forbes,  Mr.,  IL  164. 
Forbes,  Sir  Francis,  II.  156. 
Forbin,  Count,  I.  255,  257. 
Ford,  Richard,  II.  255  and  note,  256  note, 

259,  822,  385. 
Forster,  Ilofrath  Friedrich,  I.  493,  495. 
Forster,  Professor  Karl,  I.  475,  482,  IL  480 

and  note. 
Forti,  II.  48,  88. 
Fossombroni,  Count,  II.  49. 
Foster,  Sir  Augustus,  II.  40,  41. 
Fox,  Colonel  C.  J.  (General),  I.  408,  II.  370. 
Fox,  Lady  Mary,  I.  408,  409. 
Francisco,  Don,  Prince  of  Spain,  1.  206. 
Frankfort-on-Main,  visits,  I.  122. 
Franklin,  Benjamin,  I.  286. 
Franklin,  Lady,  I.  425. 
Franklin  Public  School, Boston,  ElishaTick- 

nor  principal  of,  I.  2. 
Franklin,  Sir  John,  I.  419, 420, 421, 422, 425. 
Freeman,  Rev.  Dr.  J.,  I.  17,  85,  53. 
Frere,  John  Ilookham,  I.  264,  267,  II.  466. 
"  Friday  Club,"  II.  445  and  note. 
Frisbie,  Professor,  I.  SnF>.  356. 
Fromel,  Mr.  Paul,  II.  313. 
Froriep,  L.  F.  von,  I.  454,  455,  457. 
Fry,  Elizabeth,  II.  134. 
Fuller,  Captain,  1. 61. 


518 


INDEX. 


Fullerton,  Lord,  II.  163. 
I'ullerton,  Mrs.,  II.  163. 
fultou".s  steam  frigates,  I.  27. 
Funchal,  Count,  I.  177,  179,  263. 

G.\BRiELLi,  General,  II.  67. 
Gabrielli,  Priuce,  II.  60,  67,  82. 
Gabrielli,  Princess,  II  60,  67,  68,  82. 
Gaetano,  Marchese,  II  61,  70,  79.     See  Ser- 

moueta. 
Gagern,  Baron,  I.  122, 123. 
Gaieffi,  CartUnal,  11.  71. 
Galitziu,  Princess,  II.  55. 
GaUatin,  Albert,  I.  142, 143,  IM,  145,  252, 

II.  121,  226. 
Gallois,  J   A.  C.,I.  143. 
Gannett,  31rs.  E.  S.,  II.  81  and  note. 
Gannett,  Kev.  E.  S.,  notice  of  G.  T.,  I.  327 

and  note,  II.  81  and  note,  82. 
Gans,  Professor,  I.  494,  II.  105. 
Garay,Don  M.  de,  I.  191,  192,  196,  212. 
Gardiner,  Maine,  visits,  I.  337,  385,  II.  425, 

440. 
Gardiner,  Mrs.  R.  II.,  H.  425, 465  ;  letter  to, 

I.  395. 
Gardiner,  Rbt.  Frederic  T.,  11.  463. 
Gardiner,  Rev.  J.  S.  J.,  I.  8, 11. 
Gardiner,  R.  H.,  I.  316  note,  337,11.  425, 

440  ;  letters  to,  410,  463,  464. 
Gardiner,  William  II.,  II.  449, 485. 
Garnett,  Mrs.,  II.  122. 
Gaskell,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  T.  439. 
Gaskcll,  Mr?.  E.  C.,n..347. 
Gasparin,  Count,  II.  131. 
Gaston,  William,  I.  31. 
Gauss,  Professor,  I.  70. 
Gayangos.Don  Pascual  de,IT.  162  and  note, 

181,  182.  245,  246,  255 ;  letters  to,  246, 

247,  249,  259. 
Gazzera,  Abb^,  U.  42. 
Gell,  Sir  William,  I.  175. 
Gener,  I.  346. 

Geneseo,  visits,  11.  225  and  note,  281. 
Geneva,  visits,  I.  152-1-58,  II.  36,  37. 
Genlis,  Madame  de,  II.  391. 
Geological  Society  and  Club,  II.  176. 
George  (IV.),  Prince  Regent,  I.  67. 
Georgetown,  D.  C,  vi.^its,  I.  28,  30,  38. 
Gerhard,  E.,  II.  58,  59,  66,  328,  329. 
German  language,  diflRciilty  of  studying  it, 

I.  11,  25,  26 ;  high  and  low,  87. 
German   literature,  I.  87-  89,  118-120  ;  re- 
public of  letters,  99-102. 
German  metaphysics.  I.  96-99. 
German  political  and  moral  state,  1. 102, 

103. 
German  Tniversities,  I.  89,  90,  102. 
Gesenius,W.,  I.  111. 
Gibraltar,  visits,  I.  2a5,  236. 
Gibson,  John,  n.  360,  399. 


Gibson,  Miss,  II.  332. 

Gilford,  William,  I.  58,  60,  62,  294. 

Gilbert,  Davies,  I.  4U5,  II.  182. 

GirodderAiu,II  131. 

Giustiniani,  Prince,  Nuncio,  I.  188,  193, 194 
note,  II  73,  74,  79,  85. 

Gladstone,  Right  lion.  W.  E.,n.  378,  425. 

Gleuelg,  Lord,  II  3o2,  363,  365,  366,  371. 

Gloucester,  Duchess  of,  11  146. 

Godley,  J.  R  ,  II  358, 363,  368 

Godwin,  William,  and  Mrs.  W. ,  I   1-30,  294. 

Goethe,  Wolfgang  A.  von,  I.  113,  114,  115, 
165,  211,  455,  490  note,  500. 

Goldsburough,  Capt.  U.  S.  X.,  II.  310. 

Goltz,  Count,  I   122. 

Gonzales,  hbrariau,  Madrid,  I.  197. 

Gott,  Messrs.,  I.  43S 

Gottingen,  I.  11,395:  G  T.  arrives  at,  69  ; 
life  there,  70-107,  116-121 ;  description 
of,  74,  75. 

Guttiugen  University,  I.  70,  72,  75,  76,  82 ; 
during  the  Fi-ench  war,  83,  84 ;  Literary 
Club,  85  ;  secret  societies,  90-93. 

Gourieif,  Count,  I.  487. 

Goyon,  Count,  II.  344,  347. 

Graham,  Lady  James,  I.  407. 

Grammont,  Duchess  de,  I.  257. 

Granada,  I.  193;  visits,  228-232;  Arch- 
bishop of,  228,  229  and  note,  232 ;  Cathe- 
dral of,  229. 

Grant,  Mrs.  Anne,  of  Lnggan,  I.  274,  273 
and  note,  279,  II.  162. 

Granville,  Countess  of,  IT  373,  374,  .381. 

Granville,  Earl,  II.  141.  362,  365,  373,  374. 

Grassi,  Padre,  I.  193  note. 

Graves,  Dr.,  I.  420,421. 

Grav,  Francis  Callev,  I  31,  318  and  note, 
328,  371.  II.  79,  85, 100, 184, 191,  207,  229 
and  note,  233  and  note. 

Gray,  Thomas,  I.  285. 

Greenough,  founder  of  Royal  Geological 
Society,  II.  176. 

Greenough,  Horatio,  II.  48  and  note,  76; 
letter  to,  241  and  note. 

Greenough,  William  W.,  IT.  314,  317,  320, 
325,  444,  445  and  note  ;  letter  to,  351. 

Greg,  William  Rathbone,  II.  65,  167 ,  276, 
361,  362. 

Gregoire,  Count  Bishop,  T.  1-30, 143. 

Gregorovius,  Ferd.,  II.  344. 

Gregory,  Mr  ,  II  164. 

Grenville,  Mr.  Thomas,  11.  177. 

Grey,  Earl,  I.  295,  408. 

Grey,  Sir  Gcorire,  I.  411. 

Griffiths,  Professor,  I.  419. 

Grillparzer,  Franz,  II.  8. 

Griscom,  Professor,  I.  298. 

Grisi,  Giulia,  I.  407,  413,  436. 

Grote,  George,  I.  415.  IT.  367, 369. 

Guadiana  River,  I.  222  and  note,  242. 


INDEX. 


519 


Ouniiuiui,  Count,  I.  217,  218. 

Guild,  Mr.  an. I  Mm.  U.,  II.  229. 

Guild,  .<auiuil  Kliot,  II.  22o. 

Guilford,  Lord,  1.  175. 

Guilk'Uiard,  II.  182. 

Guizot,  Fraiivois.  I  256,  314,  II.  104,  109, 
119,  12U,  120,  129,  130,  131,  134,  Vio,  13*3, 
137, 139  and  uote,  140,  143,  192,  293,  365. 

Haase,  1. 482. 

Half,  Nathan,!.  12. 

Hall,  Capt.  ba.-^il,  II.  8  and  note,  13- 

Uallaui,  Henry,  I.  58,  II.  144,  145,  146, 148, 

150, 151, 152,  153,  176,  178,  190,  326,  361 ; 

letter  from,  1:58. 
Halle,  visit.>*,  I.  110. 
Hamborougii,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  II.  377. 
Hamilton,  Alexander,  I.  261  and  note,  II. 

113. 
Hamilton,  Bi.'^hop  of  Salisbury,  II.  379. 
Hamilton,  Lady,  I.  211. 
Hamilton,  I'rofessor  (Sir  William  Rowan),  I. 

420,  422,  423,  425  and  note,  II.  471  and 

note. 
Hamilton,  Sir  George,  I.  501. 
Hamilton,   Sir  William,  II.  162,  163,  164; 

Lady, 163, 164. 
Hampden,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Hereford,  II.  375. 
Hampden,  Mi>s,  II.  380. 
Hampton  Court,  II.  382,383. 

Hand,  Professor,  I.  115. 
HanoTer,N.II.,T.3note;4,5,6,3C4,385and 

note  ;  Elisha  Ticknor  dies  there,  2,  335. 
Hanover,  visit.-^,  I.  77. 
Haroourt,  Colonel,  II.  323,  376,  377,  378.^ 
Ilarcourt,  Lady  Catherine,  II.  376,  377,  378. 
Harcourt,  Lady  Susan,  IT.  391. 
Harcourt,  Riv.  William  Vernon,  I.  424,435, 

436,  437,  II.  390,  391..  392  ;    Mrs.,  I.  437, 

II.  35X),  391,  392. 
Harcourt,  (Sir)  William  Vernon,  II.  373. 
Hardegg,  Count,  TI.  6. 
Hardenberg,  Prince,  I.  485. 
Hare,  Francis,  II.  76  and  note,  79,  80,  82  ; 

Mrs.,  II.  82. 
Harness,  Rev.  William,  I.  411,  416  note,  11. 

0(  1. 

Harper,  Charles  Carroll,  IT.  65. 

Harper,  General  Robert,  I.  351. 

Harpers,  Messrs.,  II.  255. 

Harris,  Leavitt,  II.  113  and  note. 

Harrison,  George,  I.  193  note. 

Ilarrowby,  Second  Earl  of,  II.  323. 

Hartford  Convention,  I.  12-14. 

Hartford,  visits,  I.  14 

Harvard  College,  G.  T.  nominated  to  a  Pro- 
fessorship in,  I.  116:  accepts,  120;  enters 
on  Professorship,  319  -  326  :  attenipte-l  re- 
forms in.  3.^3-369,  379,399-401:  views 
for,  U.  422,  423 ;  made  LL.  D.  in,  508. 


Ilatflell.     Sff  SttlUburjr. 

llutherton,  Huron  and  Uaronwa,  II.  871. 

Ilattou,  vi.-itj<,  I.  52. 
lluven,  MIkx,  1   08 

Haven,  N.  A.,  I.  123  note, 316  ii'  '      "•  '"'. 
II   436;  l.-tterK  to,  I  '^i,  49. 
359;    lettern   frou»,   li'A   n«>t«?,   iiTi   uou- ; 
death  of,  377  ;  nictnoir  of,  377,  3W 

Hawthorne,  .Nathaniel,  1   3>^9,  II.  *J0. 

Huwtrey,  Dr.,  II.  372,379. 

llayne,  Colonrl  Robert  Y.,  I.  Ii".! 

Ilayward,  Abraham,  II.  371,  872,  37S,  8S2. 

Hay  ward,  Dr  ,  II.  3ln,  4«>4. 

Hay  ward.  Dr.  G.,  II.  4'«. 

Ilazlitt,  William,!  29:^294. 

Hejul,  Lady,  II.  3' 
385,  386,  397,  3.'-. ...,-.,  .-.,  -  •  -  . 
428,  432,  478,  479,  487 

Head,  Sir  E<Imund,  II.  140,  1 
3t>i,  3<35,  3(;7,  369,  371,  3S4,  ..     , 
398,  424,  436,  43S,  43r« :   letter*  to,  'J'..». 
270,  275,  285,2«x,i;- 

4n9,  4It),  425,  427,4— .  ^ .  -   ', 

471,  474,  476,  477,  481  :  letters  from,  406, 
429  :  death  of,  4^2  and  note. 

Head,  Sir  Fnmcjs,  I.  3^>,  11-  177, 182. 

Ileber,  Richard,  1.  2t>4,267. 

Ileeren,  Professor,  I.  80. 

Heidelberg,  visit*,  I.  124.  II.  lOO,  101,  827. 

Heinrich,  Professor,  II.  28,  29,  30. 

Ileldewier,  II.  41. 

Helps,  (."^ir)  Arthur,  II.  374. 

Ilercolani,  Prince,  I.  166,  183. 

Herder,  Baron  von,  I.  il'^. 

Hermann,  Professor,  I.  K'"^,  112. 

Ilerschel,  Sir  John,  II.  176,  178. 

Ilertzherg,  Countess,  I.  4<j7. 

Hess,M,  11.37. 

Ileyne,  Professor,  I.  95, 105, 106. 

Iligginson,  Barb.irn.    S'f  Perklu«,Mr9.  S.  O. 

Iliirginson,  Stephen,  I.  12,  13. 

Ilillard,  George  Stillnmn,  1.  320  not.-, 
note,  II.K«2,  19*-.,-:'     -' '  "    '     "''      ' '• 
291,  361,  c>'''l  note,-;  -  • 

letter  to,    234;   edits  lourtii    .  : 

"  ili.;tor>- of  Si>:tni<h  Litcraturp,"  -  ...   .v. 

Ilillhousc.  Mr.,  1.  14 

IIiU,  Lord  Arthur,  I   442. 

II(.hhou<e.  (Sir)  .b.lui  COm,  I.  165. 

Ilofwyl  Sciiool,  11.  35. 

Hogg,  Jame.«,  I.  278. 

IIo!"'.  Mr,  1.  416. 

Holland  House.  I.  2!^'.  40«.41«,  H.  176,181, 

3';i,3';7,37o.;r 

Holland,  Ix^ni  ^T •    -     ■  2»'>4,  2»v',,  Vu, 

294,  41^,418,422,11.  146,  147,  149.  150, 
176,  182:  Spani-h  libmry.  I.  457;   T 
2''>4  and  note.  2'..-,.  40,'*,  4<»1»,  II  147. 14  • 

Holland,  Lord  (Foorth),  II.  a>i«.  »36,  373, 
3S4 ;  Lady,  367, 369, 373,  379,  Ssi 


1 


520 


INDEX. 


,»v|6 


Holland,  Dr.  (Sir  Henry),  I.  446,  II.  145, 
151,  152,  259,  326,  371,  384,  439,  463. 

Holland,  Queen  of,  II.  371,  381. 

Hollond,Mr.,  II.  479. 

Holmes,  Dr.  0.  W.,  II.  310. 

Hopkinson,  Francis,  I.  15. 

Hopkinson,  Judge,  I.  15. 

Hopkinson,  Mrs.,  I  16. 

Horner,  Francis,  II.  150,  468. 

Horner,  Leonard,  II.  332,  3-58,  409. 

Horner,  Mrs.  L.,  II.  332,  358,  359,  360,  409. 

Hosmer,  Miss  Harriet  G.,  II.  371,  383,  384. 

House  of  Commons,  G.  T.  called  before  Com- 
mittee of,  I.  415  ;  debate  in,  416 ;  debate 
in,  II.  378. 

House  of  Lords,  debate  in,  IL  365. 

Houston,  General  S.,  I.  372,  373,  374. 

Hilber,  Francois,  L  156,  157,  II.  37. 

Huber,  Y.  A.,  II.  260. 

Hubner,  Julius,  II.  329. 

Hudson  River,  visits,  I.  386,  TI.  282. 

Hiigel,  Baron  von,  II.  Ill,  112. 

Hiilsemann,  Chevalier,  II.  263. 

Humboldt,  Baron  Alexander  von,  1. 128, 129, 
1-30,  134  and  note,  135,  138,  145,  146,  254, 
255,  257,  258  note,  263,  498,  499,  500,  501 
II  3,  4,  20  note,  260,  315,  330  and  note, 
3-32,  3a3,  339,  340,  341 ;  letter  from,  411 ; 
letter  to,  414. 

Humboldt,  Mad.  von  (Wilhelm),  I.  177, 178, 

11  59.  c   -       ■•    .-  ''   •■_ 
Humboldt,  Wilhelm  von,  II.  411. 
Hume,  Colonel,  I.  447. 
Hume,  Joseph,  II.  1.56, 157. 
Hunt,  Jonathan,  I.  7,  381. 
Hunt,  Leigh,  I.  292,  294. 

Infantado,  Duque  del,  I.  206. 

Irving,  Washington,  I.  291,  293,  479,  492, 

IT.  247,  248,  256  note,  454  ;    letter  to, 

245. 
Ischl,  IL  31. 
"  Italians,  The,"  by  Mr.  Bucke,  rejected  by 

a  London  audience,  I.  291. 
Italinski,  I.  179. 
Italv,  visits,  L  160-184,  IL  37-99,  335- 

3.53. 

Jablonowski,  Princess,  II.  88  and  note. 

Jackson,  General  Andrew,  I.  480. 

Jackson,  Judge,  I.  40,  371. 

Jakobs,  Professor,  I.  Ill,  112. 

Jameson,  Mrs.  II.  201,  202. 

Jamieson,  Robert,  I.  275. 

Janvier,  M.,  II.  106,120. 

Jarcke,  Dr.,  IL  1,  3,  5,  11. 

Jardine,  Mr.,  II.  374. 

Jarvis,  Charles,  I.  20. 

Jaubert,  II.  1.33,  136.      « 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  President  U.  S.,  1. 16, 53, 


110,  212,  345,  346,  377,  II.  493  ;  G.  T.  vis- 
its, 34-38,  348,  349;  his  philosophy,  87  ; 
opinion  of  Bonaparte,  301  ;  plans  for  uni- 
versity, 301,  3U3;  letters  from,  300,  302 
and  note  ;  eulogy  on,  378. 

Jeffrey,  Francis  (Lord),  J.  30,42,43-47,277, 
280J  II.  146,  147,  148,  150, 151,  154,  493. 

Jersey,  Countess  of,  I.  138,  269,  296,  297, 
410,  II.  466. 

Jewett,  C.  C,  II.  304  note,  308,  310,  313, 
314. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  I.  53,55;  "The  Club,"' 
11.476,478;  life  of,  492. 

Johnstone,  Judge,  I.  .381. 

Joinville,  Prince  and  Princess,  n.  382. 

Jones,  Commodore,  I.  373. 

Jones,  Mr.,  II.  65. 

Jordan,  Baron  von,  I.  461,  478. 

Jomard,  E.  F.,  II.  117,  125,  133,  141. 

Jouberton,  Anna,  I.  183,  II.  88. 

Jouffroy,  II.  133. 

Jourdain,  Camille,  1.255. 

Jouy,V.  E.  de,  II.  108,141. 

Julius.  Dr.,  11^,260  ;  letter  to,  250. 

Jusuf,  II.  133,  134,  137. 


^7^  i^2S 


Kahlbex,  Baroxess,  I.  489. 

Kaltcnbaeck,  II.  2,  8. 

Kane,  Mr.,  I   376. 

Kistner,  Professor,  I.  76,  77. 

Kean,  Edmund,  I.  07,  127. 

Keating,  Dr.  Oliver,  I.  10. 

Keiblingcr,  librarian  of  ^Molk,  II.  23. 

Kemble,  Stephen,  I.  291,  292. 

Kempt,  Sir  James,  II.  176. 

Kenney,Mr.,  I.  406. 

Kent,  Duchess  of,  I.  435,  437. 

Kent,  James,  Chancellor,  L  333-340,  380, 

-    II.  200,  226. 

Kenyon,  Edward,  II.  1. 

Kenyon,  John,  I.  411  and  note,  418,  II.  144, 

145,  149,  181,  182,  183,  323;    letters  to, 

212,  223.  291. 
Kenyon,  Mrs.  John,  I.  456. 
Kestner,  A.,  II.  58,  59,  64,  65,  72,  84. 
Kestuer,  Charlotte  Buff,  I.  78. 
Kildare,  Marquis  of,  II.  168. 
King,  Rufus,  I.  350.  351. 
Kinglake,J.  A.,II.378,  382. 
Kingsley,  Professor,  I.  14. 
Kirkland,  Dr.,  President  of  Harvard  College, 

I.  a32,  355,  360,  368  :  letter  to,  321-323. 
Klopstock,F.  G.,  I.  125. 

Kmety   General,  11.  373.  \0^    \^ 

Knapp,  Professor,  I.  112,113.      r        \      !^9^       ' 
Koenneritz,  von,  II.  115.  ivljt/ 

Kossuth,  Louis,  II.  276- 
Krause  of  Weisstropp,  I.  476,  TI.  10. 
Kremsmiinster  Monastery,  TI  27-30. 
Kurtz  of  St.  Florian,  II.  25,  26,  27. 


1 


INDEX. 


521 


Laboucukre,  Henry  (Lord  Taunton),  I.  408, 

411,  11.  322,  371,  372,  385,  482. 
Labouchere,  Lady  Mary,  li.  372,  385,  386. 
La  Caieta,  11.  3S5. 
La  Carolina,  1.  223. 
Lacerda,  1.  24(5,  247,  249. 
Lacretelle,  Charles,  I.  133-135,139. 
Lafayette,  Geueral  Marquis  de,  1.  139,143, 
151,  152,  155,  257,  263,  344  and  note,  350, 
851,  II.  106,494. 
Lafayette,  Madame  de,  II.  106. 
La  Fontaine,  Auguste,  1.  112. 
Lagrange,  visits,  I.  151,  152. 
La  Granja.     See  St.  lldefonso. 
Laharpe,  General,  II.  35,  36. 
Lake  George,  vi,<its,  II.  281  and  note,  289. 
Lalleniaud,  General,  II.  113. 
Lamartiue,  A.  de,  1.  470  note,  II.  116, 117, 

119,  128,  136, 137,  141. 
Lamb,  Charles,  1.  294. 
Lamb,  Sir  Frederic,  II.  1. 
Lansdowne,  Marchioness  of,  I.  413,  415,  II 

151. 
Lansdowne,  Marquess  of,  I.  263,  264,  430,  II. 
145, 146,  151,  259,  323,  324,  325,  363,  366, 
371,380. 
La  Place,  Marquis  de,  I.  255- 
La  Place,  Marquis  de,  Jeune,  11.  131. 
Lardncr,  Dr.  Dionysius,  I.  425  and  note. 
Latour-Maubourg,  Marquis  de,  II.  61. 
Latrobe,  .Tohn  H.  B.,  IT.  463. 
Lauderdale,  Earl  of,  I.  264. 
Lausanne,  visits,  I.  152,  155,  II.  35,  36. 
Laval,  Montmorency,  Due  Adrien  de,  1. 128, 
137,  188,   189,  193,   194   note,   204   note, 
209,  210,   212-214,   218,   258,  295,   309, 
811 ;  letters  from,  303,  305 ;  death  of,  307 
note. 
Lawrence,  Hon.  Abbott,  II.  260  note,  300, 

302. 
Lawrence.  James,  II  304. 
Lawrence.  Mrs.  James,  II.  324,  847. 
Leake.  Colonel,  II.  1-55. 
Lebanon,    Conn.,     Elisha     Ticknor    born 

there,  I.  1. 
Lebanon,  N.  H.,I.  4,  5. 
Lebrun,P.  A..  11.116,131. 
Le  Chevalier.  J    B.,  I.  131. 
Le  Clerc,  General,  I.  123. 
Le  Fleming,  Lady,  I.  434. 
Legtre,  Hugh   Swinton,  I.  278  note,  450, 
488,  489,  II.  204  note,  436  :    letters  to, 
191   and   note,   196,  197,  198,  207,  210, 
211  ;  death  of,  212.  213  and  note. 
Leghorn,  visits,  T.  183. 
Leibnitz  MSS.  in  Hanover.  T  78. 
Leipzig,  visits,  T.  107,  II.  313,  316,  380. 
Lenox,  Robert,  I.  15. 

Lenzoni,  Marchesa,  IT.  4«,.')6..57.  88,  91,  92. 
Lepsius,  Dr.,  K.  R.,  IL  58,  84,  332. 


Lerchenfeld,  Baron,  II.  1,  2,  6,  7,  11,  19. 
Leslie,  C.  R.,  I.  389  and  note,  II.  181. 
Les.seps,  Baron  J.  B.  B.,  I.  248. 
Les.«;ens,  Ferd.  de,  II.  364,  381. 
Lewis,   George   Cornewall    (Sir  G.   C),    II. 
^180,  3^23,  363,  366,  385,  468  ;  death  of,  461, 

462  and  note.     *"        *■ 
Lewis,  Lady  Theresa,  IT.  323,  359,  .366,  370, 

372,  385,  462.     Ste  Lister,  Lady  T. 
Lewis,  M.  G.,  I.  67,  165. 
Leyser,  General  von,  I.  465,  476,  486,  491. 
Lichtenstein,  Professor,  1.  501. 
Lieven,  Prince,  I.  381. 

Lieven,  Princess,  II.  120. 

Lindenau,  Baron  von,  1.  457,  458,  460,  464, 

476,489,491,  II.  190. 
Lisbon,  visits,  I.  243,  250. 
Lister,  Lady  Theresa,  I.  407  and  note,  418, 

IT.  147. 
Literary  honors  received  by  G.  T.,  II.  507. 
Lister,  Thomas,  I.  407  note,  418,  II.  148. 
Litta,MarcheseandMarchesa,II.  95,  96,  97. 
Litton,  Mr.,  L  421. 
Liverpool,  visits,  L  49,  297,  298,  402-404, 

II.  321,  400. 
Livingston,  Edward,  I.  123,  350,  851,  380, 

381,  382, IL  118,  488. 
Livingston,  Judge,  I.  .39. 

Livingston,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Maturin,  I.  886. 
Livingston,  Mrs.    Edward,  I.  8-50,  351,  3S1, 

382,  IL  488. 
Llangollen,  visits,  T.  51,  52. 

Lloyd,  Professor,  I.  405.  «T.?^    t  ^  7. 

Lockhart,  John  G. ,  IL  147,  179, 189. 
Lockhart,  Mrs.  J.  G.,  T.  407f\  :x.v^--   .-^  ■ 
Lohrmann,  W.  G.,  I.  4-59,  482. 
London,  Tower  of,  T  446,  447. 
London,  visits,  L  51.  54  -  68,  251,  263-267, 
289-298,  406-418.  445-449,  IT.  144-155, 
175-183,  311,  312,  321-827,  357-376, 
378-387. 
Long,  Professor  Georcro,  I.  3!8. 
Longfellow,  Henry  W.,  I.  399,  IL  196,  204, 

479. 
Longfellow,  Stephen,  I.  14. 
Loretto,  visits,  I.  167. 
Lougli,  .To1in  Graham,  TI.  1-52. 
Louis  Philippe,  King  of  the  French,  IT.  16, 

19, 108, 109, 110,  111,  112,  121, 122,  135. 
Louvois,  ^larcVioness  de,  I.  253. 
Lovcll,Mrs,  I.  286,11.  166. 
Levering,  Professor  .T. ,  IT.  310 
Lowe,  Rev   Mr  ,  I   440,  441.  44-0. 
Lowe,  Riirht  Hon   Robert,  IT.  380. 
Lowell,  John,  T   339,  356,  360. 
Lbwenstein- Wertheim,     Princess,    I.    487, 

489 
Lubbock,  Sir  John,  IT.  179. 
Lucca,  visits,  IT.  94.  95 
Ludolf,  Count,  IL  69  and  note,  70, 79,  80. 


Hi 


522 


INDEX. 


Lund,  I.  177. 

Lushington,  Mrs. ,  II.  72. 

Liittichau,  M.  de. ,  I.  476  and  note,  491. 

Liittichau,  Madame  Ida  de,  I.  476,481,  482, 
483,  485,  491,  11.  334. 

Liitzow,  Count,  11.  76,  342. 

Liitzow,  Countess,  11.  76. 

Luxmoore,  Misses,  1.  432  note,  II.  178  and 
note. 

Lyell,  Charles  (Sir  Charles),  II.  176,  197, 
203,  219,  223,  224,  244  note,  269  note,  294, 
313,  329,  357,  358,  359,  363,  364,  365,  367, 
369,  370,  429,  437  ;  letters  to,  215,  216, 
230,  234,  240,  253,  271,  273,  276,  287,  296, 
407,  422,  430,  446,  460. 

LyeU,  Colonel  H.,  II.  360. 

Lyell,  Mrs.  (Lady),  II.  197,  293,  223,  291, 
'294,  313  and  note,  322,  328,  329,  357,  358, 
359,  363,  364,  365,  367,  369,  370,  423,  432, 
460;  letters  to,  437,  439,  449. 

Lyman,  Mrs   Theodore,  I.  10. 

Lynch,  John,  I.  389  note. 

Lyndhurst,  Lord  Chancellor,  L  443,  EC.  365, 
371. 

MACAUX.4.T,  T.  B.,  II.  260  note,  269  note, 

323,  324,  325,  301,  362,  366,  367,  369, 

373. 
Macbeth,  Henderson's  reading  of,  I.  55, 56. 
Mackenzie,  II.  155. 
Mackenzie,  Henry,  I.  279. 
Mackenzie,  Miss,   of   Seaforth,  11.   85,  86 

note. 
Mackintosh,  Robert  J.,  II.  181. 
Mackintosh,  Sir  .Tames,  L  50,  263,  264,  265, 

279,  289,  290,  291,  430  ;  Lady,  290. 
McClellan,  General  George  B.,  IT.  444,  458. 
McClellan,  Mrs.  George  B. ,  IL  458. 
McLane,  Louis,  I.  409. 
McLane,  Mi.^s,  I.  277,  278. 
McNeill.  Mr  ,  I.  417.  II.  12, 13. 
McNeill,  Mr?.,  L  417,  II.  164. 
Madison.  J.,  President  of  the  United  States, 

I.  29,  30,  .34,  53, 110,  .346, 347,  409. 
Madison,  Mrs.,  I.  29,  .30,  346,  347. 
Madraso,  Jose  de,  I  186  and  note. 
Madrid,  visits,  I.  185,  186-220;  described, 

190  -  214. 
Mahon,  Viscount,  II.  258  and  note,  292.  See 

Stanhope,  Earl. 
Mai,  Monsignor,  II.  81  and  note,  82,  83. 
Maidstone,  Tiscount,  IT.  80. 
Maison,  Marshal,  II.  130, 136. 
Malaga,  I.  2.33.  2.34. 
Malaga,  Bishop,  I.  2.34,  235. 
Malchus,  Baron,  II.  100. 
Malibran,  Madame,  T.  407,  413. 
Mallett,  J.  L.,IT.  274. 
Maltby,  Bishop  of  Durham,  II.  178. 
Maltby,  Mr.,  I.  58,  413.  H    • 


Malthus,  T.  R.,  I.  290. 

Manchester,  Mass.,  II.  2.39  and  note,  268. 

Manchester,  (Seventh)  Duke  and  Duchess  of, 
II.  .381. 

Manning,  Mr.,  I.  61. 

Manzoni,  Alessandro,  II.  44,  45,  95,  96,  97. 

Manzoui,  Madame,  II.  44. 

Marchetti,  Count  and  Countess,  I.  166. 

Mareuil,  Baron  de,  I.  350. 

Marialva,  Marques' de,  I   180,  246,  263. 

Marie  Amelie,  Queen  of  the  French,  II.  121, 
135. 

Marie  Louise,  Empress,  II.  6. 

Marina,  Fr.  M.,  1. 197. 

Mariotti,  Luigi,  pseud.  Antonio  Gallenga, 
II.  339. 

Marron,P.  H..  I.  130. 

Marryat,II.  168. 

Mars,  Mile.,  I.  126. 

Marshall,  Chief  Justice  U.  S.,  L  33,  38. 

Martens,  Professor,  I.  77. 

Martin,  Aim*?,  II.  118. 

Martinetti,  Count,  I.  166. 

Martiuetti,  Countess,  L  166, 167,11.  47, 114, 
120,  126. 

Mason,  James  J.,  death  of,  I.  456. 

Mason,  Jeremiah,  I.  123  and  note,  395,  396, 
II.  196,  208,  209,  210,  211. 

Mason,  Robert  Means,  II.  445  note. 

Mason,  William  Powell,  I.  12,  316  note. 

Massachusetts  Congregational  Charitable  So- 
ciety, G.  T.  officer  of,  I.  379  note. 

Massachusetts  Farm  School  for  Boys,  G.  T. 
Treasurer  of,  I.  379  note. 

Massachusetts  General  Hospital,  G.  T.  Trus- 
tee of,  I.  379  note,  384. 

Massachusetts  Hospital  Life  Insurance  Com- 
pany, G.  T.  Director  and  Vice-President, 
I.  379  note. 

Massachusetts  Mutual  Fire  Insurance  Com- 
pany, I.  2. 

Massimo,  Christine  de  Saxe,  Princess,  II.  65, 
71,  81. 

Massimo,  Monsignor,  II.  68. 

Massimo,  Prince,  II.  65,  68,  69,  77. 

Maxwell,  Henry,  II.  165  note. 

Maxwell,  Marmadukc  Constable,  II.  165, 166. 

Maxwell,  Mrs.  Marmaduke  C,  II.  165,  166. 

Mazois,F.,  1.179. 

Mazzei,  Filippo,  II.  92,  93  and  note. 

Medici,  Lorenzo  de,  IT.  89,  90. 

Medico,  Count  del,  I.  446. 

Medina-Celi,  1. 195. 

Meineke,  J.  A.  F.  A.,  H.  332. 

Melbourne,  Viscount,  I.  408,  409,  U.  19, 352. 

Menou,  Count  de,  I.  381,  382. 

Meredith,  Mrs.  William,  I.  15. 

Meredith,  William,  I.  15. 

Meredith,  William,  Jr.,  I.  15. 

Merimee,  Prosper,  II.  106, 125. 


n 


INDEX. 


.23 


Merivalo,  Ilernmn^II.  3G3,  382,  384,  481. 
Mettorniili,  I'riiui"  Clement,  1 1.  1,  3,  4,  5,  G, 

7,  9,  10,  11,  12,24,74,  112,  214,  290;  con- 
versation witli,  13-18;  diriiK-r,  18-20; 

Princess,  fi,  7,  10,  11,  17,  18,  19. 
Meyer,  I.  115. 

Mezzofanti,  Abbate,  I.  166,  II.  78,79,  83,84. 
Miciili,  (iiiiseppe,  IT.  4S,  51,  .52,  53,  57. 
Michaelis,  J.  D.,  I   76,  77,  127. 
Mignet,  II.  115, 118, 119, 125, 127, 130, 136, 

1.38,  355,  336,  31^. 
Milan,  visits,  I.  161,  II.  42-45,  95  -97,  335. 
Mildmay,  Humphrey,  II.  322,  387,  390. 
Mildmay,  Mrs.,  II.  3SS. 
Millbauk,  Sir  R  and  Lady,  I.  67,  68. 
Milman,  II.  II.  (Dean),  11.151,152,154,178, 

180,  182,  323,  324,  329,  332,  358,  3G7,  369, 

372,  3S6,  387,  478  ;  letter.s  to,  203,  2(35. 
Milman,  Mrs.,  II.  179,  180,  204,  324,  329, 

332,  358,  309,  372,  .3«?6,  3<^7. 
Miluiore,  Martin,  II.  492  note. 
Milnes,  R.  Monckton  (Lord  Houghton),  II. 

364,  367,  368,  371,  372,  373,  388,  389,  390. 
Miltitz,  Baron,  I.  501. 
Milton,  study  of,  I.  394. 
Milton,  Viscount,  death  of,  I.  456,  II.  156. 
Minot,  William,  11.  463,  4i54,  489. 
Minto,  Countess  of,  I.  408,  412. 
Minto,  Second  Earl  of,  I.  408. 
Mitford,  Miss,  I.  418,  419  and  note. 
Mitscherlich,  Professor,  I.  92. 
Mittermaier,  Professor,  II.  100,  329. 
Mohl,  Madame  Jules,  II.  362,  339,  373. 
Mohl,  Professor  Jules,  II.  124,  127. 
Mohl,  Professor  Robert,  II.  329. 
Mojon,  Dr.,  II.  107. 
Mojon,  Madame  Bianca  Milesi,  II.  107  and 

note,  122, 131,138. 
MokS  Count,  IL  107, 110, 111,112,115, 135, 

136,  140,  355. 
Molk  .Monastery,  II.  21,  22-24,  26. 
M.iller,  I.  124. 

Monk,  J.  II,,  Bishop  of  Gloucester,  I.  271. 
Monod,  A.,  II.  103. 
Monroe,  J.,  President  of  the  United  States, 

I.  349. 
Montagu,  Lady  Mary  Wortlcy,  11.  98  and 

note. 
Montalembert,   Count,   II.    104,  127,  130, 

137. 
Montalembert,  Countess,  II.  127. 
Montalivet,  Count,  II.  131. 
Mont  Blanc,  I.  154,  156. 
Monte,  Domingo  del,  IT.  2.56  note. 
Monteagle,  Lord,  II.  3t.>3,  366,  371,  380. 
Montebello,  Due  and  Duchesjsode,  11.  35. 
Montgomery,  James,  I.  440,  441. 
Montgomery,  Mrs.,  T.  386. 
Monticello,  1.  30  ;  visits,  34-33. 
Moutijo.     See  Teba. 


Montmorency,  Due  Matlilcu  dc,  I.  304  and 
note. 

Moutmorcncy-Laval.     Sre  I.ATal. 

Moore,  Thouia.^,  1.  420,  422,  42.J. 

Moore's  Charity  Scli(«>l,  Kli.-lia  Ticknor 
head  of,  1. 1 ;  connected  with  DarCmuuth 
College,  2. 

Monitiu,  L.  F.,  T.  252. 

Moreau,  Genenil,  1.  4'<8. 

Morehead,  Rev.  Dr.,  I.  280,  414. 

Morgan,  I^idy,  T.  425,  11.  178. 

Murley,  First  Earl  of,  I.  407,  II.  181 ;  Coun- 
tess of,  1.407,  II.  181,384. 

Morley,  St'cond  Earl  of,  II.  366,  372;  Coun- 
tess of,  372. 

Morley,  Third  Earl  of,  II.  482. 

Moruington,  Countess  of,  1.  295,  296. 

Mori>eth,  Viscount,  II.  197.  !iee  Carlisle, 
Earl  of. 

Morris,  Gouverncur,  I.  256. 

Morris,  Rev.  Mr.,  II.  396. 

Morrow,  Governor,  I.  372. 

Mortemart,  Viscomte  and  Viscomtesse  de, 
II.  61,  66. 

Mos,  Marquesa  de,  I.  207. 

Motley,  J.  Lothrop,  letter  from,  11.256. 

Miihlenburg,  Dr.,  I.  111. 

Mulgrave,  Countess,  II.  179. 

Mulgrave,  Earl  of,  I.  420,  421,  422,  423,424, 
435,437,4.38. 

Miiller,  Johann,  T.  115. 

Miiller,  Johann,  II.  412. 

Miiuchhausi'n,  Baron,  I.  501. 

Munich,  visits,  II.  34,99. 

Miinster,  Count,  I.  77,  78. 

Murehison,  (.<ir)  Roderick,  I.  419,  421,  II. 
155,  176,  179,  .371. 

Mure,  Colonel  William,  TI.  70,  77,  80. 

Murray,  J.  A.,  I.  277,  40S. 

Murray,  John,  II.  147,  2.55. 

Murray,  John,  senior,  I.  58,  60,  62,  68,  2W. 

Murray,  Mr.,  II.  149. 

Museum  of  Comparative  Z<viIogv,  Cam- 
bridge, II   422,  423.  4.>*^  and  note,  445. 

Musgrave,  Bishop  of  Ilerefonl,  II.  178. 

Musgnive,  Mr.,  I.  246.247.  24><. 

.Musignano,  Charles  Bonaparte,  Prince  (after- 
wards Canino),  II.  60,  66,  85, 127, 14L 

Xui.vNT,  T.  a39i3S.'>. 

Xamias,  Dr..  II   314. 

Napier,  LopI,  II.  417. 

Napier,  McVey,  II.  161,  162. 

Napier  of  Dublin.  II.  378. 

Naples,  Fenlinand  IT.  King  of,  IT.  6, 10,  H. 

Naples,  visit5,  I.  174  -  176,  II.  35<).  .'i:^L 

Nasse,  Dr.,  I.  4.54. 

Nauniann,  IT.  12,  19. 

Naumann,  Profes-or  <^.  F  ,  I.  454. 

Navarrete,  M.  F.  de.,  I.  197. 


524 


INDEX. 


Neander,  J.  W.  A.,  I.  493. 

Necker  de  Saussure,  Madame,  1. 155  and  note. 

Tsecker,  M.  and  Madame,  II.  37. 

Nelson,  Lord,  anecdote  of,  I.  63. 

Nemours,  Due  de,  I.  493. 

New  Bedford,  lands  in,  I.  298. 

Newcastle,  England,  I.  272. 

Newcastle,  Fifth  Duke  of,  II.  432. 

New  Haven,  vi-sits,  I.  14. 

New  Orleans,  battle  of,  I.  29,  37. 

Newton,  Stewart,  I.  412,  421,  422. 

New  York,  visits,  I.  ]o,  27,  404,  II.  222,226. 

Niagara,  visits,  I.  386,  II.  221,  225,277,  281. 

Nibby,  Antonio,  II.  83. 

Nibby,  Carlo,  I.  171. 

Niccolini,  Giov.  B.,  II.  49,  53,57,  88. 

Nichols,  Rev.  J.,  I.  336,  II.  196. 

Niebuhr,  B.  G.,  1. 127,  177, 178,  II.  326. 

Niemeyer,  Chancellor,  I.  110, 113. 

Niemeyer,  Professor,  I.  Ill,  112. 

Noailles,  Alexis  de,  I.  254. 

Nodier,  Charles,  II.  123- 

Nodier,  Madame  C,  11.  123. 

Noel,  R.  R.,  I.  506. 

Norman,  Mr.,  II.  390. 

Northampton,  Marquis  of,  II.  176. 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  II,  328,  491  note. 

Norton,  Mrs.  Andrews,  I.  334  note,  398  note, 

II.  282,  328. 
Norton,  Professor  Andrews,  I.  17,319,334, 

355,  356,  II.  188,  229,  287. 
Nostitz,  General,  II.  332. 

0'Co>'NELL,  Daniel,  I.  411,  416,  480. 

Odescalchi,  Cardinal,  II.  85. 

Odillon-Barrot,  II.  136. 

Oehlenschl'ager,  Adam,  1. 126. 

Ogilvie,  James,  I.  8. 

Oken,  Professor,  I.  115. 

Ole  Bull,  II.  225. 

Oliver,  Robert,  I-  41. 

0'Neil,Miss,  I.  53. 

Ord,  Mr.,  I.  415. 

Orleans,  Due  d',  T.  493,  II.  122. 

Orleans,  Helene,  Duchesse  d',  II.  121, 131, 

135. 
OrlofF,  Madame  d',  II.  80. 
Ossuna,  Duchess  of,  I.  205,  207,  208,223,  II. 

126. 
Otis,H.G.,  1.12,13,14,  20,  21,40,339,359, 

360. 
Ouseley,  Sir  Gore  and  Lady,  II.  372. 
Overbeck,  II.  77. 
Owen,  Robert,  of  T^anark,  I.  278. 
Oxford,  visits,  I.  289,  404,  II.  168, 169. 

Paez  de  L'V  Cadexa,  I.  489. 

Paireot,  M.,II.  106. 

Painting,  Spanish  School  of,  T.  216, 221,239. 

Palafox  y  Melzi,  Don  J.,  I.  206. 


Palfrey,  John  Gorham,I.  331. 
Palgrave,  Sir  Francis,  II.  152, 154. 
Palissot,  Baron,  I.  131. 
Pallavicini,  Princess- Abbess,  II.  71. 
PalmeUa,  Count,  I.  248,  263,  264  and  note, 

267. 
Palmerston,  Viscount,  I.  458,  II.  325,  372, 

373,378,381,382,384,429. 
Palmerston,  Viscountess,  II.  372,  384. 
Panizzi,  Antonio,  II.  325,  359, 375. 
Paris,  visits,  1. 126  -151 ;  police  affsiir  with, 

141-146;   visits,  253-263,  II.  102-143, 

353-356  ;  salons,  I.  253,  II.  355. 
Parish,  Daniel,  I.  15,  16,  27. 
Parker,  Chief  Justice  of  Massachusetts,  I. 

9, 10  note,  11,340. 
Parker,  Mr.,  I.  146, 148. 
Parker,  Mr.,  I.  407. 
Park  Street,  house  in,  I.  387-389. 
Parr,  Dr.,  L  50,  52,  53,  288, 289. 
Parsons,  Chief  Justice,  I.  396. 
Parsons,  Theophilus,  II.  452. 
Parsons,  William,  I.  331,  332. 
Pasquier,  Chancelier,  Due,  II.  134. 
Pastoret,  Count  (IMarquis),  I.  253,  255,  256. 
Pastoret,  Countess  (Marquise),  I.  255,  256, 

II.  118  and  note,  119,  128, 134, 139. 
Patin,  Professor,  II.  130. 
Patterson,  Mr.,  1. 193  note. 
Pauli,  Dr.,II.  328. 

Peabody,  Rev.  W.  0.  B.,  I.  428  and  note. 
Peacock,  Professor,  II.  156, 158. 
Peel,  Frederic,  II.  323. 
Peel,  Sir  Robert,  I.  416,  417,  480  ;  death  of, 

II.  268. 
Pelet  de  la  Lozere,  TI.  131. 
Pellico,  Silvio,  I.  450,  II.  38,  39,  40,  41. 
Pennsylvania,  visits,  II.  221,  222. 
Pentland,  Mr.,  11.346. 
Peppercll,I.  337,385. 
Percival,  Mr.,  II.  .394,  395. 
Perkins,  Colonel  T.  II.,  I.  328,  370. 
Perkins,  James,  I.  370. 
Perkins, Mrs.  S.G.,L  13,49,68,260,328,331. 
Perkins,  S.  G.,  I.  12,  13, 14,  49,  68. 
Perkins,  S.  II.,  T.  68  and  note,  121. 
Pertz,  Dr.,  II.  313  and  note,  332,  358,  359, 

365. 
Pertz,  Mrs.,  II.  359,  365. 
Peter,  America  Pinkney,  I.  38;   Britannia 

Wellington,  38 ;    Columbia  Washington, 

38;  Thomas,  38. 
Peter,  Mrs.     See  Custis. 
Peters,  of  Merton,  II.  168. 
Petrarch,  letter  on,  I.  341-344. 
Philadelphia,  visits,  I.  15,  a52,  II.  222. 
Phillips,  .Tonathan,  II.  300. 
Phillips,  Professor  J.,  I.  422,  437  and  note, 

II.  176. 
Phillips,  Thomas  J.,  I.  443,  II.  155. 


INDEX. 


525 


Phillips,  Willard,  I.  391,  II.  489. 

Piafon/-!,  visits  (I'lacfiitia),  1.  lt;2,  II.  338. 

Picaid,  W  illiaiii,  lettiT  to.  II.  4.'>o. 

Piccolouiini,  Monsignor,  11.  G7,  08. 

Pichler,  Carolino,  1 1.  12. 

Pichoii,  IJaruu,  I.  132, 'it.l,  II.  113,114,120. 

Pickerin^T,  John,  I.  85,  391,  11.  201. 

PiokiM-iiiir.  Octavius,  1.  391. 

Pictet.lK'odati,  1.  153,  II.  37. 

Pictot,  Professor,  I.  153, 156, 159,  11.  37. 

IMorc,  Proti>s>or  H.,  11.  310. 

Pillaus,  Jauios,  1.280. 

Piltz,  Dr.,  11.313.         » 

Pinkiu'v,  William,  T.  39,40,  41  and  note. 

Pi.<a,  visit.s  II.  92-94. 

Pittsficld,  Mas.<;.,  Elisha  Ticknor  head  of 
school  ill,  I   2. 

Pius  VII.,  1.  173,174. 

Pizarro,  Chev.  Don  L.,  I.  207,  208,  212. 

Plattncr,  II.  58,59. 

Playfair,  I'rofci'sor,  I.  276,  279. 

Plymouth,  vif^its,  I.  327-331. 

Podeuas,  Marquis  de,  II.  41. 

Podenas,  Marquise  de,  II.  41,  125. 

Poinsett,  Joel  R.,  I.  350  and  note. 

Pole,  Mrs.,  T.  4n7,  471. 

Polk,  Mr.,  [.  381. 

Ponsonby,  Frederic,  I.  443. 

Ponsonby,  Mr.,  II.  176. 

Porson,  Kifliard,  I.  108. 

Portal,  Dr.,  I.  133,138. 

Portalis,  Count,  II.  134, 135. 

Porter,  Dr.,  I.  356. 

Porter,  Miss  Jane,  II.  178- 

Portland,  visits,  I.  337,  385. 

Portsmouth,  N.  II.,  visits,  I.  123  note. 

Portugal,  visits,  I.  242-249  ;  people  of,  242. 

Posse,  Count,  I.  183  and  note. 

Poss6,  Countess.    See  IJonaparte,  Christine. 

Pozzo  di  Borgo,  Count,  I.  131,  II.  149. 

Prague,  visits,  I.  509-511,  11.  314. 

Pre.scott,  Jud.!,'c  W.,  I.  12,  13,  SHi,  337,  339, 
340,  345,  355  and  note,  356,  359,  360,  361, 
371,  383,  391,  II.  207  note. 

"  Prescott,  Life  of,''  11.  437-440,  444,  449- 
450.  •'' 

Prosrott,  Mrs.  W.,  I.  317  and  note,  345,11. 
207  note. 

Prescott,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  II.  322,  324,  350,  354, 
436,  437,  439,  444. 

Prescott,  W.  II.,  I.  316  and  note,  317  and 
notc,i91,  II.  189,  190, 191,  196,  207  note, 
251,  ^o5  and  note,  256  note,  25*^,  2.'>9  note, 
260,  264,  269  note,  272,  275,  291,  293,  407, 
419,  420  :  goes  to  Wiushington  with  G.  T. ,  I. 
380,  381:  letters  to,  341,  346,  349,  .3.'^6, 
479,  II.  141, 142,  209,  322,  aS-S,  342,  349, 
354,  366 ;  letter  from,  252 ;  death  of,  419 
note,  436. 

Preston,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  II.  391. 


Sir 


T     I. 


Preston,  W.  C,  of  South  Carwlltui,  I.  27^ 

noto,  29H. 
Pn'voxt,  I'rofcxiior,  I.  l.>5,  II.  37. 
Prichard,  Dr.,  I.  422. 
I'riiuary  f^<li<x>l.'<of  llojitoii,  I.C 
Pro-^sedi,  I'riucciui,  1     1--    1 

Oahrielli. 
Provciiriil  Htudif.'t,  !.  '^,'1,  II.  4*7. 
Pru.ssiu,  Irederic  Williaiii   III    Kim 

5<i2. 
Pru.>isift,  F'redcric  Wlllinnj   IV.  Kiuj^  of,  II. 

3:30,  331,. •i:j2,:j.>3,l^lH,;i4L 
Pru.osia,  Prince  of,  II.  331  and  note. 
I'uibusque.  A.  d.",  n.  2^»,  a>i. 
I'urg.'UiU,  Haroncss,  118. 
Putland,  Mr.  and  Mr.-*.,  I.  425. 

QiWR.iXTiNE  near  Bologna,  II.  46,  47. 

Quebec,  visits,  I  38G. 

Quetelet,  M.,I.  4."A 

Quincy,  Hon  Josiah,  I  339,  315,  3C8. 

Quincy,  Mrs  J  ,  1.34.5. 

Quinet,  Edgar,  II.  lul,  127. 

Raczynski,  Cocnt,  T.  495,  501,  II.  330. 

Radetzky,  Marshal,  II   Si^j.  ,'«8 

Rjiduor,  Lord  and  !-idy,  11.  173. 

Ralston,  Mr.,  I.  278  note. 

Ramirez,  II   41. 

Ram.«ay,Mrs.  E  ,11  \CA. 

Ramsay,  Rev.   Edward  (Dean),  II.  164  ani 

note. 
RanililTo,  Baroness,  I.  458,  459. 
Randall,  Mi.<s.  I.  312  and  note,  XL  104. 
Riindohr,  I.  175. 
Riinilolph,  Colonel,  I  35. 
Randolph,  John,  of  Roanoke,  I.  15, 16,  27. 

381. 
Randolph,  Mrs.,  I.  35.  34S. 
Randolph,  T.  J.  and  E!l.-n,  I.  35,  37,  343. 
Rank.",  Pn.fcs.<or,  11   a-'J 
Rauch,  Christian,  I.  495,  II.  341,  412  and 

note. 
R;iuz;in,  Due  de,  II.  128. 
ILiuzan,  Duchesse  de,  11.  125,  13">,  187,  S4S, 

3.")5,  356. 
Rawliu.xon,  Colonel  (Sir  H  ),  II   .T5.  37S 
R.iymond,  Rot.  Dr.,  II.  145. 
Raynouard,  I    2.'.2,  11    4^7. 
lUVamier,  .Madame,  I.  137,  9M. 
Recke,  Frnu  von  dcr,  I.  474 
Reed,  II    181 
Roes,  Dr  ,  1.  65. 
Reeve,  Henry,  IT  3'T9. 
Uoijina,  Duke  de,  I    446. 
Reiehenbach,  H    T   L  ,  I.  475,  482 
Roid,  Mrs.,  I.  415  and  note, 
Remus.-»t.  C.  F.  .M  ,  Count  de.  II.  r  '    ^   " 
RetTu^rh,  Moriti,  I    4»'.''.,  474,  476,  ; 
Reumont,  Baron  Alfred  Ton,  11.  315,  *S*. 


526 


INDEX. 


Reviews  and  minor  writings,  list  of,  II.  507. 

Reynolds,  Dr.  Edward,  I.  154. 

Rich,  Obadiah,  II.  245  and  note,  249. 

Richardson ,  TI.  360. 

Richelieu,  Due  de,  1. 143, 144,  145,2,53,  262. 

Richmond,  Virginia,  visits,  I.  12,  33. 

Riemer,  Professor,  I.  115, 116. 

Rigaud,  Professor,  I.  422. 

Rignano,  Duca  di,  II.  346. 

Riguano,  Duchessa  di,  II.  347. 

Rilliet,  Madame,  I.  152,  II.  37. 

Riuteln,  Carl  Meyer  von,  II.  328  and  note. 

Rio,  A   F. ,  II.  1S2. 

Rivas,  Duchess  de,  T.  207. 

Rivas,  Duke  de,  I.  225,  227. 

Robinson,  Henry  Crabbe,  I.  411,  II.  86  and 

note,  97,  98, 100, 146,  485. 
Robinson,  Professor,  I.  422. 
Rocca,  Alphonse  de,  II.  104. 
Rocca,  M.  de,  I.  138. 
Rochefoucauld,  Due  de  la,  I.  256,  II.  61. 
Rockingham,  Marquess  of,  I.  440,  441. 
Roden,Earlof,  II.  362. 
Rogers,  Miss,  II.  180, 181, 182. 
Rogers,  Mr.,  II.  389. 

Rogers,  Professor  W.  B.,  II.  310,  445  note. 
Rogers,  Samuel,  I.  406,  410  and  note,  412 

and  note,  414,  430,  II.  145,  178,  179,  180, 

181,  182,  ^44  note. 
Roget,  Dr  ,  I.  416. 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  dedication  of,  I. 

18  note. 
Rome,  visits,  I.  169-174,  II.  58-86,  315, 

338-349;  society  in,  I.  176-183;  ruins 

of,  II.  63,  68,  70,81,345. 
Roquefort,  IT.  487. 

Roscoe,  William,  I.  50,  51,  52,  297,  298. 
Rose,  Mr.,  English  Minister  in  Berlin,  I. 

109,  110,  119 
Ro.'^ini,  Giovanni,  II.  93,  94. 
Ross,  Sir  John,  I.  419,  422. 
Rossi,  De,  11.345. 
Rossi,  Pellegrino,  II.  106  and  note,  108, 115, 

116, 120. 
Rotch,  William,  I.  299. 
Rotterdam,  visits,  I.  68. 
"  Rough  Notes,"  etc.,  by  Sir  F.  B.  Head, 

I.  .380. 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  I.  156, 158. 
Roxburgh,  Duke  and  Duchess  of,  IT.  179. 
Roy.  Comtesse  de,  II.  125. 
Rudiger,  Professor,  I.  113. 
Ruelens,  Charles,  II.  312,  313. 
Ruskin,  John,  II.  170. 
Russell,  Lord  John,  I.  166,  264,  269,270, 

290,  291,  407,  II.  176,181,323,380,429, 

466. 
Russell,  Lord  William,   I.   267,  269,  499, 

501. 
Russell,  PirH.,  II.  79. 


Saalfeld,  Professor,  I.  102. 

Saavedra,  Don   Angel  de  (Duke  de  Rivas), 

I.  225,  228  and  note. 
St.  Andre,  M.  de,  I.  381. 
St.   Bernard,   Pass   of,   I.   158 ;   monks  of, 

159. 
St.  Domingo  Revolution,  I.  13. 
St.  Florian  Monastery,  II.  24-27. 
St.  Ililaire,  Rossieuw  de,  II.  256  note,  259. 
St.   lago.  Marques   de,   I.   207 ;    his   sister 

Paulita,  207. 
St.  Ildefoniso,  L  214,216-218. 
St.  Leon,  L  133,  134. 
St.  Simoud ,  Marquis  of,  I.  206. 
St.  Val,  Mademoiselle,  I.  126. 
Ste.  Aulaire,  Count  de,  I.  253,  II.  129,  134. 
Ste.  Aulaire,  Countess  de,  I.   256,  II.  108, 

114,  120, 134,  354,  355. 
Ste,  Beuve,  C.  A.,  IL  105. 
Ste.  Sulpice,  Seminary  of,  II.  132. 
Salerno,  Prince  of,  II.  10  ;  Princess  of,  382. 
Sales,  Francis,  I.  7,368. 
Salisbury,  First  Marquess  of,  I.  267,  268 ; 

iVIarchioness  of,  268. 
Salviati,  L  450,  451.      ..  ^  OyfJ  j  C«^  '     '  H  C> 
Sands,  Dr.,  I.  425."  ^ 

Sandwich,  Cape  Cod,  visits  with  Mr.  Web- 
ster, I.  386. 
Santa  Cruz,   Marques  de,  I.  195,  207,  221, 

223  :  library  of,  II.  248:  son  of,  263. 
Santa  Cruz,  Marquesade,  I.  208. 
Santarem,  Marques  de,  II.  133. 
San  Teodoro,  Duca  di,  I.  174. 
Saragossa.     See  Zaragoza. 
Sartorius  von  Waltershausen,  I.  121. 
Sauli,  II.  42. 
Savage,  .James,  I.  2,  9,  85,  252,   273,  316 

note,  319  and  note,  391,  II.  292,  420,  427. 
Savigny,  F.  K.  von,  I.  499. 
Saxe-Cobourg,  Duke  of,  II.  3-32. 
Saxony,  Anton  King  of  I.  461,  463,  464,465, 

466,  467,  481 :  death  of,  II.  12  note. 
Saxony,  Princess  Amelie  Duchess  of,  I.  463, 

465,  469, 477,  IL  54,  55,  88,  89,  201,  202, 

481 ;  death  of,  489,  490. 
Saxony,  Princess  Augusta  Duchess  of,  I.  461 

note,  463,  484,  486. 
Saxony,  Prince   Frederic    Duke  of  and  Re- 
gent (also  King  of),  I.  462  note,  463,  468, 

485,  486,  II.  12,  480  note. 
Saxony,   Prince  John    Duke   of  (also  King 

of),  I.  462  note,  463,  464,  466,  467,  468- 

469,  470,  471,  472,  475,  477,  482,  489,  IT. 

49,  225  note,   330,   340:  letters  to,   189, 

201,  228,  2.35,266,  294.  478,  489;    letters 

from,  202,  2.33,  237.  490. 
Saxony,  Prince  Maximilian  Duke  of,  I.  461 

note,  463,  471,  II.  54,  55,  88,  90. 
Saxony,  Princess    John    Duchess    of   (also 

Queen  of),  I.  484  and  note,  II.  202,  481. 


INDEX. 


527 


Saxony,  Princess  Louise  Duchess  of,  I.  4C3, 

11.  54,  55. 
Saxouy,   I'rincess   Marie   Duchess   and  Re- 
gentoss  of  (also  Queeu  of),  1.  403,  407, 
484. 
Say,  Louis,  I.  133,  134. 
Say  and  Sele,  Lord,  11.  378. 
Schack,  Barou,  11.  250,  344. 
Schadow,  IJ.  330. 
Schadow,  Rudolph,  1.  177. 
Schafor,  Professor,  1.  108. 
Schlegel,  A.  \V.,  1.  127,  128,  129,  131,  134, 
138, 153,  430,  453,  454,  483,  11.  lol,  103, 
320. 
Schlegel,  Friedrich  von,  1.  122,  123,  127. 
Schlosser,  II.  100. 
Schultze,  Dr.,  I.  70,  73  note,  80,  81  and 

note,  82,  121. 
Schurtz,  llofrath,  I.  112. 
Schwabe,  Dr.,  1.  58. 
Scilla,  Prince,  I.  212,  219. 
Sclopis,  Count,  II.  42  and  note. 
Scott,  Anne,  1.  283. 

Scott,  General  Wiuficld,  II.  4-35,  443,  444. 
Scott,  Sir  Waher,  L  24,  275,  27G,  280,281, 
283,  284,  430,  II.  100,  101, 175, 189,  360 ; 
portrait  of,  1.  388,  380,  407. 
Scott,  Sophia,  I.  281,  283,  284-,ivv:>ie<.  l^  <■ 
Scott,  Walter,  Jr.,  1.  284.  »<-tt-*-^  >  Mv» ..  •  » 
Seaver,  Mr.,  Mayor  of  Boston,  II.  303. 
Secession,  IT.  430,  442,  446. 
Sedgwick,  Professor,  I.  271,  419,  420  note, 

421,  II.  156, 157,  176, 177,  178.  179. 
Segovia,  vi.sirs,  I.  218;  Bishop  of,  218. 
Senior,  Na.'ssau  William,  I.  40",  412  ami  note, 
4.51,  IT.  145,  147,  1.51,  178,  .S25,  362,  363, 
364,  366,  369,  371,. 375,  380,  .3S5. 
Senonnes,  Viscount  de,  T.  255,  2^2,  263. 
Sermoneta.  Duca  di,  II.  346  and  note,  347, 

348. 
Servia,  life  in,  T.  478.  j 

Seville,    T.    237-241:    Alraz,ir,   2-38.    240; 
Cathedral,  238.  239;    people  of,  239,  240. 
Seymour,  Mr  .  T.  447. 

Shakespeare,  study  of,  T.  394  :  Tieck's  read- 
ing of,  473,  477,  482;  Schlegel's   trins-  I 
lation  of.  468,  483  | 

Sharon, Mass.,  E  Billings  (Mrs.  E.  Ticknor), 

born  and  keeps  school  in,  1.  3. 
Sharp,    Richard,    "  Conversation,''    I.    65, 

56. 
Shaw,  William  S.,  founder  of  the   Boston 

AthenfPum,  T.  8.  12. 
Shelhurne,  Ividy,  IT.  371,  3<iO. 
Shelburne,  Lord,  II.  147,  176. 
Shiel,  I.  415. 

Siddons,  Mri?.,  T.  55.  56,  66. 
Sierra  Morena,  I.  223. 
Silliman,  Professor  B.,  T.  14. 
Simeon,  Sir  John,  II.  372,  373. 


Siniond,  1.153.179,  11.37. 
Sinipluu,  croHjtej*,  I.  1»JU, 
Sindair,  .Mi-«.s,  II.  1)^. 
t?i.'nion.li,  .Mrs.,  J.  21i«»,  II.  77,  HO. 
Si.smundi,  Simonde  di-,  L  151,  2yO,  291,  296, 

297,314,  11.37,  77,  «0,1U7. 
Skene,  James,  I.  2hii. 
Skinner,  .Mr. uud  .Mrx.,  II.  158. 
Skriue,  Mrs.  und  the  .Mi^M•.t,  11.  156,159. 
Slavery  iu  tiie  Luit»-.I  .>tJite«,  I.  47'J,  H.  199, 
2UU,  210  -21y,  221,  223,  :i72,  285,  2»0,  •£)*}, 
297,430,441,440. 
Sloaue,  F.  J.,  11.315. 
Smidt,  Senator,  1.  122, 123. 
Smith,  Benjamin,  1.  175. 
Smith,  Elizabeth,  1.  4^J3. 
Smith,  Profesj»or  Nuthuu,  I.  14. 
Smith,  Rev.  Sydney,   I.  2»;5.  413,  414,417, 

418,440,  11.  14«j,  15U,  151,  214,  215,  lil'J. 
Smith,  Sir  James,  1.  57. 
Smyth,  Edward,  1.  438. 
Smyth,  Professor  W.,   I.  271,  272,  415  and 
note,  438,  439,  II.  145,  140, 149,  152,  155, 
150, 157,  15.S,  159,  193. 
Sneyd,  Miss  Mary,  1.  420,  423,  II.  174  and 

note. 
Sohuar,  Mi.^s,  1.  495. 
Somerset,  Lady  Granville,  IL  33S,  3S9. 
Somerville,  Dr.,  1.  448 
Somerville.Mrs.,  I.  411,  412,  44S,  479,  II. 

154,  178. 
Sommariva,  Marrhese,  I.  175. 
Sonntag,  M  ,  1.  iO">. 
Southey,  Bertha,  II.  ItV). 
Southey,  Rlith  and  L^al^lla,  I.  28.',. 
Southey,  Mrs.   R  ,    I.   2>^  and   note,  434; 

death  of,  II.  149. 
Southey,  Robert,  I.  60.  135.  l.T..  2S5-2S7. 
4.34, 11. 145, 149, 166. 19it :  libmrj-  sale,  246. 
Souvestre,  Emile,  II.  107  note. 
Souza,  Madame  de,  1.  24'^. 
Souza,  Monsieur  de,  1.  2.V2,  2'Tr. 
Spiiin,  government  of,  I.  P.tl  :  InntjidrJon  in, 

i;>3;  visits  in,  185-241. 
Spanish  books,  O.  T.'s 
note,  II.  245-248.  24 
361.    Given  to  Boston  P.ubiu-  Lit>riry,  .x". 
Spanish  bull-flght.«»,  1.  2«i2-204  ;  law.oun>«, 

2:i^  :  people,  P.V-^.  242 
Spjuii^h  libr:irie.<«,  I.  197,215.  2"  i'>7, 

II.  2,  127.3'!<>.  3>n,  3''4,  374.  .  -    •  . 
Sjvini-:!!  lirerature.  ivvy«ag««  on,  in  inniitninU 

nildrcss.  1.  32it :  l<^tuns  on,  .TJ-'in! 
"Spanish  Litemture.  History  of."   .     _    :. 
243 -2»2:  noticcM  of.  255,  2fA;    Mitinnfl 
of.  2'^.  2>^;  tmnslafionn,  264,  256,  290, 
27.5.  418. 
Sparks.  .Tared.  TI.  191.  8^3.  .Tr2. 
.^pamiann.  Herr.  T.  .V4  note,  IT.  25. 
Spencer,  Second  Eari,  I.  209,  235,  U.  406. 


528 


INDEX. 


Spencer,  Third  Earl  ("Honest   Althorp  "), 

I.  442,  443,  444,  445,  II.  170,  171,  172, 

173. 
Spinola,  Marquis,  II.  342. 
Sprengel,  Professor,  I.  Ill,  112, 113. 
Stackelberg,  Count,  I.  460. 
Stael,  Auguste,  Baron  de,  I.  128, 138, 139, 

151,  155,  312,  II.  36,  37,  104;  writings,  I. 

314  and  note  ;  letter  from,  313. 
Staei,  Madame  de,  I.  11,  57,  60,  61,  98,  119, 

120,  127,  128,  129, 130, 132, 133,  136,  138, 

1.51,  189,  213,  430,  497,  498,  II.  37,  134, 

a55,  498. 
Stael,  Madame  la  Baronne  Auguste  de,  II. 

354  and  note. 
Stafford,  Marchioness  of,  II.  832. 
Stanhope,  Countess  of,  II.  359,365,387,388, 

389. 
Stanhope,  Earl  of,  II.  322,323,359,  362,364, 

365,  366,  387,  388,  389,  462. 
Stanhope,  Lady  Evelyn,  II.  364. 
Stanley,  II.  181. 

Stanley,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  II.  178. 
Stanley,  Hon.  Edward  (Fourteenth  Earl  of 

Derby),  I.  408  note,   II.  479;  translation 

of  the  Iliad,  471. 
Stanley,  Hon.  Mr. ,  I.  424. 
Stanley,  Lord  (Fifteenth  Earl  of  Derby),  11. 

362,  365,  373,  378. 
Stanley,  Mrs.,  II.  369. 
Stapfer,  P.  A. ,  I.  130. 
Stebbins,  Miss,  II.  357. 
Steinla,  Moritz,  I.  490. 
Stephen,  James  (Sir  J. ),  II.  180  and  note. 
Stephens,  John  L.,  IL  201,  202. 
Stephens,  Mr. ,  I.  248. 
Stephenson,  George,  II.  149. 
Sternberg,  Baron  Ungern,  I.  460,  483. 
Steuber,  II.  6. 
Stewart,  General,  L  381. 
Stewart,  Mrs.  Dugald,  II.  164. 
Stiltz,  of  St.  Florian,  II.  25,  26,  27. 
Stirling,  William   Sir  William  Stirling  Max- 
well), n.  271,  322,  323,  363,  364,  365,  368, 

369,  378. 
Stockmar,  Baron,  II.  179. 
Stokes,  II.  176. 
Stolberg,  Countess,  I.  125. 
Stolberg,  Leopold,  T.  125. 
Storey,  C.  W. ,  II.  445  note. 
Story,  Joseph,  Judge,  I.  40,  316  note,  839, 

340,  .361 ;  letter  to,  392. 
Strauss,  .1. ,  II.  5. 

StroganofF,  Count,  I.  462,  464,  465,  468,  491. 
Stroganoff,  Countess,  I.  462,  486,  487. 
Strutt,  Hon.  J.  W. ,  II.  482. 
Stuart,  Abbe,  IL  80,  82. 
Stuart  de  Rothesay,  Lord,  II.  64. 
Stuart,  Lady  Dudley,  I.  446  and  note.     See 

Bonaparte,  Christine. 


Stuart,  Lord  Dudley,  I.  446  and  note. 

Sturgis,  H.  P. ,  II.  445  note. 

Sturgis,  Russell,  II.  390. 

"  Subaltern,"  by  Gleig,  I.  380. 

Suhvan,  Miss,  II.  482. 

Sullivan,  Richard,  I.  12. 

Sullivan,  William,  L  9,  11,  12,  20,  40,  381. 

Sulmona,  Prince  (since  Borghese),  II.  61,  66, 

84. 
Sulmona,  Princess,  II.  61,  66. 
Sumner,  Charles,  II.  199,  296,  297. 
Survilliers,  Countess,  II.  87. 
Sussex,  Duke  of,  II.  152. 
Switzerland,  visits,  L  162-160,  IL  34-37. 

Tagcs  River,  I.  243. 

Tait,  Bishop  of  London,  II.  371,  384. 

Talfourd,  SirT.  N.,IL  181. 

Talleyrand,  Prince,  L  13, 123,  254,  258  -  2G3, 

II.  35,  113, 114. 
Talma,  L  126,  127. 
Tarentum,  Archbishop  of,  I.  174. 
Tascher  de  la  Pagerie,  11.  131. 
Tasso  MSS.,  forgery  of,  by  Alberti,  II.  52,  53, 

79  and  note. 
Tastu,  Mad.  Amable,  II.  124,  128, 129. 
TatistchefF,  Madame  de,  I.  211. 
Tatistcheff,  M.  de,  I.  210,  212. 
Taylor,  Abbe,  L  173. 
Taylor,  General  Zachary,  President  of  the 

United  States,  II.  263  ;  death  of,  266. 
Taylor,  Henry  (Sir  H.),  I.  418,  II.  145, 180, 

368. 
Taylor,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  John,  I.  425  and  note, 

432  note,  II.  178. 
Tazewell,  Littleton  Waller,  I.  350,  381. 
Tchitchagof,  Admiral,  I.  179. 
Teba,  Count  de,  I.  233,  235. 
Teba,  Countess  de,  1. 233,  234  and  note,  309. 
Temmel,  A.,II.  80. 
Ternaux-Compans,  Henri,  II.  118, 127,  133, 

355. 
Ternaux-Compans,  Mad.,  II.  133. 
Terregles,  II.  165. 
Tetschen,  visits,  I.  504  -  509. 
Thacher,  Rev.  S.  C.,I.  11. 
Thackeray,  W.  M.,  II.  294  and  note,  323, 

327  note. 
Thayer,  Sylvanus, Brigadier-General  U.  S.A., 

I.  7,  8  and  note,  316  note,  372-375,  3S6, 

II.  810,  443,  444,  484 ;  letters  to,  468,  470, 
489. 

Theatre,  French,  1. 149,  150 ;  Spanish,  201. 
Thierry,  Augustin,  I.  814,  II.  115, 124, 126, 

127,  129,  133, 137,  142,  143. 
Thiers,  L.  A.,  II.  130,  133,  136,  138,  139, 

140,  355. 
Thiersch,  Professor,  T.  114, 115. 
Thompson,  Mr.  and  Lady  Mary,  I.  440. 
Thompson,  Mr.,  II.  55. 


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